🧭
Tamaki's phone was totaled.
He snuck down to retrieve it when everyone was asleep, using Mirio's phone as his flashlight in the dark of night. His device drowned in a puddle not far from the entrance of their apartment building, screen and case shattered beyond repair. It wouldn't turn on or give him any indication of life.
Haru accompanied him to the store on Sunday after dropping Mirio and Nejire off at the train station, clad in dark jeans, caramel-colored boots, and a burgundy sweater under her black coat. A cream scarf kept her face warm, fluffy around her neck. She looped her elbow through his - at his request - ensuring they wouldn't get separated.
Tamaki tried to hide his blushing cheeks in the thick gray scarf he'd borrowed from Haru, snuggling deeper into his navy coat and pulling her closer. They didn't talk much on the way to the phone store or on the way home; it was too cold for that. But he was thankful for her company anyway.
When they arrived home some hours later, new phone in hand with all of the data transferred over from his old phone, they peeled off their layers and snuggled into the couch to enjoy the pho they'd picked up on the way home. Haru could tell something was weird by the way Tamaki clung to his new phone, eyes constantly fixed on it and acting shifty.
"Everything okay, Tama?" she asked, stirring her noodles.
He winced and grit his teeth, nodding without giving a proper answer. The last thing Tamaki wanted to do was lie to her, so he avoided speaking altogether. His greatest worry was that even if he approached Haru with his evidence (which survived the fall, survived the data transfer too) that she wouldn't believe him. So he had some digging to do. He needed to prepare.
"You've been kind of off since yesterday," Haru continued, wiggling her toes over toward him, burying her chilly feet beneath his thigh for warmth. "Do you want to talk about it? Or is it not something I can help with?"
A soul-deep sigh released from Tamaki's lungs. He met Haru's worried gaze, the concern painted all over her face, and it physically pained him to say, "I... don't think you can help with this, Haru. I'm talking to Mirio about it." The crease in her brow deepened, the frown curved tightly, and he swore he saw a sheen to her captivating eyes.
But Haru nodded, staring into her soup, clearing her throat. "Sure, okay," she said, surprised at the hurt clawing at her voice, "If you change your mind, you know where to find me." She stood, cradling her soup, and walked to her room without another word, closing her door softly behind her.
Tamaki watched her go, his heart sinking fast. "Of course," he whispered to her back, to her door, to the lonely room. "Of course."
🧭
The worry consumed Haru like a fever, eating her from the inside out.
A strange tension drifted into the apartment, between her and Tamaki's every exchange, like a phantom scourge, a tangible fog of uncertainty... and she didn't know what she'd done to put it there. Or how to fix it.
So she did what she could: Haru cooked all of Tamaki's favorite meals, with extra ingredients for his quirk; she cleaned the apartment top to bottom in a fit of anxious energy, unable to sleep; Haru fixed his costume without him asking, reinforcing every seam and juncture with the strongest stitches she could think of, wishing good vibes into every loop and knit and purl. But nothing changed.
Haru turned to Nejire - her just-slightly-older, just-slightly-wiser cousin - hoping that she would have some secret insight into Tamaki's odd behavior. Maybe he did this a lot, or maybe there was a secret to getting him to open up.
But Nejire had no answers.
"Just give him a few days!" she sighed through the phone, "He's always been moody and shy. Maybe you put his favorite mug in the wrong cupboard or something. Who knows."
Haru checked. Tamaki's favorite mug was where she always put it: right beside hers, next to the coffee pot. It wasn't that.
Her heart sank deeper the more he avoided her. The chill of rejection and the sting of silence tore at Haru, ripping her limb from limb... but slowly, painfully, jarringly. Atom by atom, she felt herself slipping from her perfect life, her happiness, her best friend.
...all she really wanted was to get him back.
🧭
The phone call was inevitable. "I'm having a week," she explained.
As was the meeting. He could hear it in her voice, his quirk picking up the faintest of changes in her emotions, even over the phone. "I'm just around the corner from your place, want to meet up?"
"...Sure."
The hug was expected. The tears, sure. The comfort, maybe. His arms weren't Tamaki's, but Haru didn't have anyone else to turn to... her only support system in the city was Tamaki. Maybe Fat Gum, but she couldn't call her boss about this petty roommate drama...
So she called him. Yasushi.
What Haru hadn't expected was the kiss. His cold lips pressed to hers unexpectedly in the middle of their embrace, in the middle of the sidewalk, no romance behind the action. Like a rubber stamp on cardboard, he smashed his mouth into hers and peeled away, his golden eyes gluing her in place as he asked the last question she'd expected to hear.
"Haru, will you be my girlfriend?"
Her breath caught in her lungs, frozen tears streaming down her face from venting about the Tamaki situation. His arms caged her in, locked her against his body. Yasushi's eyes trapped her for a moment, stunning and piercing and numbing.
Wrong.
It was all wrong.
"No," Haru said, clarity rushing back as she broke her gaze from him, pushed away from his body, stumbled away from his warmth, "It's too soon. It's too fast. I'm not- That's not what this-" Her fingers drifted to her lips, afraid to touch them and find that they'd been broken, tainted somehow by his emotionless kiss.
"Then what is this, Haru?" His voice was thin and cold as ice, quiet as snow.
Somehow she heard him over the din of the busy streets around them, even as she had her back turned and ready to flee. "This was a mistake," she answered, pushing through the frigid winter air.
She ran home and didn't look back.
🧭
When Tamaki arrived home from his patrol in the middle of the night, chilled to the bone from the mid-December cold, he already knew something was wrong.
All of the lights were on in the apartment. Every door was open.
The TV softly played Howl's Moving Castle, but no one was there to watch it.
He didn't bother taking off his shoes as he bolted inside, heart punching against his lungs. "Haru?" he called, "You home?" Tamaki searched room by room, running.
Kitchen: empty.
Living room: empty.
Laundry: empty.
"Haru, please answer me," he yelled, tripping and catching himself on her door frame.
A sound caught his sensitive ears, slowing his panicked feet for just a second. He lingered in her doorway, listening again.
Crying.
Tamaki hauled himself into her room, beelining for the only door in the entire place that he just realized was closed, and yanked it open. Nestled in a mound of blankets and fallen clothes, tears streaming down her flushed cheeks, Haru choked on her sobs, burying her face in her hands at the sight of Tamaki.
The tension released from his body in an instant. "Thank god," he sighed, collapsing to his knees in front of her and pulling her into his arms. "I thought- you didn't- I-" Tamaki tried a million ways to explain his feelings, and then switched tactics and almost told Haru about Nakamura, but his tongue wouldn't reconnect to his brain.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled, burying her face into his chest, "For whatever I did that upset you, I'm sorry." Haru reached up with trembling fingers, and clutched Tamaki's damp jacket tight, pressing him to her. She couldn't take the strangeness between them anymore, so she laid it all on the line, apologized for something she didn't even understand. "Please, let's go back to normal. I'm so sorry."
Her words confused him, sending him spinning in a whole new direction. Had he really been acting that differently since the weekend previous? Since he'd found out about Nakamura? He'd noticed Haru was a little bit distant, but also saw the fancy meals she'd left for him, how nice the apartment looked, and even his souped up suit... and he thought maybe they were early holiday gifts. That Haru was just working hard. Tamaki never once thought that they were apologies.
What an idiot.
He buried his cold nose in the warm crook of her neck and shook his head. "No, you don't need to apologize," he muttered, "There's nothing to forgive. This was my fault. I was acting weird. I'm sorry."
Haru's fingers drifted up to the nape of Tamaki's neck and she coaxed him away from her, meeting his eyes for the first time in days. "You aren't mad?"
A soft smile tugged at his lips as he cupped her cheeks in his hands, brushing the residual tears away with his thumbs. "Not even a little."
They sat there for a second, basking in each other's warmth, soaking in the other's touch after so long. Tamaki felt the air shift, noticed her glance at his mouth. His stomach filled with butterflies at the idea of kissing Haru in a way that he'd actually remember. In a way that meant something.
He wanted to. Dammit, he wanted to.
Haru chewed on her bottom lip, mulling over kissing Tamaki for real, for concreteness, when the memory of Nakamura and the question invaded her mind. Her eyes blew wide, and she pulled her hands from Tamaki to place a palm over his heart. "Nakamura asked me to be his girlfriend today."
She may as well have punched Tamaki in the face.
His hands retreated from her flushed cheeks, and he rocked back on his heels. The world tilted for one, long, life-changing moment while he asked, "And?" and waited for the answer.
"I said no."
Tamaki nearly kissed her right there and then.
"Good," was all he said, "Good."
🧭
A/N: what a rollercoaster of a chapter, am I right?? well, wait until next week... when I gift upon you the ~HOLIDAY~ chapter!!! (insert confetti and glitter and streamers here, maybe some lasers and music of your choice)
Y'all, it's *chef's kiss* beyond words. The softness is mind-blowing. If you need a break from all of the tension and drama I've been putting you through, next week is the gentle week, my loves.
See you then!