Sunshine Sneakers

A Boku no Hero Academia oneshot.

Summary: Tamaki has an anxiety attack, and Mirio comes to his aid. Tamaki could never understand why his friend continued to help him when he believes he doesn't deserve it. His friend tries to convince him otherwise.

Warning: Rated T for anxiety references and a little sprinkle of Miritama.

He rubbed his lips and waited for the tears to stop.

He knew he was being childish, curled up in the corner of the closed stall, wishing he could blend into the cold and bland linoleum stacked around him. Faucets clicked on and off, but he only heard the drip drip drip of his tears leaking onto the floor.

Why did the first day of high school feel like dying?

He curled his feet towards each other, pressing the worn fabric of the converse together. They were red and fading fast, just like his courage, as he swiped a palm across his cheek and gathered the tears that he could. This first day could easily be his last.

Click.

The door to the restroom opened, the sign on the door rattling as it swung to a close. He pulled his legs tight to his body. Breathed once. Twice.

Tamaki was small enough in his corner that he could trace the shoes across the floor. They were sneakers, lovingly cared for, meticulously treated. He swallowed slowly as it approached the first stall closest to the sink. It creaked open slowly. His heart pounded louder. Anxiety.

The sneakers gilded to the second stall and cracked it open, too, its empty contents turning the wearer to the final stall, Tamaki's stall, and he tried to remember how to breathe; but it was like breathing through a straw, and he felt his anxiety rise as his lung shrunk and suffocated him in an ugly high school bathroom—

A soft tap. A soft voice. "Tamaki… you in there…?" Mirio.

Tamaki hiccupped. He covered his mouth at its betrayal, but it was enough for his friend beyond the door. He jiggled the handle softly.

"You wanna let me in...?" He spoke so gently, Tamaki still thought he would shatter. He scrubbed the tears from his face and shook his head before he realized his friend would never see it.

"No…" he said, his voice quaking, trying to stall the tears before they came again.

He waited for the feet to turn around. He waited for the door to open and the sign to rattle and for him to be left in peace.

Why he expected that out of Mirio of all people, he would never know. But despite knowing him so well, he was just as surprised and shocked to see his face phasing through the door like a creepy mask left on a sales rack after Halloween.

He was worried, concerned; and before Tamaki could protest, his arms morphed through the door and slid the bolt out, so he could enter the stall appropriately without losing his clothes, something his friend was grateful for, even if he wanted nothing more than to be left alone. Mirio slid the bolt back into place with a satisfied click before he turned and crouched beside him.

"What's going on Tamaki?" Mirio asked, studying the telltale signs that his friend had been losing to the beast he called anxiety. "Was someone mean to you...?"

"No," Tamaki answered, rather quickly, and tried to backpedal until he crashed and scrapped both knees and wanted nothing more to go back to the pointless sobbing to relieve himself of something. "Don't worry so much about me Mirio… I don't deserve it…"

Mirio snatched his hands from his legs, and it startled him; but staring into the warmth in his eyes, he let it fade and tried not to think too much about the specifics.

"Of course I will worry about you!" His blond friend insisted, his eyes strong, his hands squeezing his with every affirmative word. "You're my best friend in all the world. I'll never stop worrying about you." He grinned from ear to ear, and Tamaki was pierced by the words he knew were coming. "Because you're my sunshine. My only sunshine! You make me happy when skies are grey—"

Tamaki yanked his hands away, causing Mirio to pause, only for his friend to hide his face behind his grey sleeves so his blush would remain unseen.

"So... embarrassing…" he muttered, and Mirio laughed.

His laughter was magical. The bathroom stall was warm with his presence. His converse were a deep red, like the cape his friend would wear as he stormed into battle as a hero. Tamaki was sure that Mirio never realized many of the battles he's fought fiercely in have never been in his hero uniform. They were fought in bathroom stalls and empty hallways, in dark closets and lonely houses.

They were fought inside Tamaki; and while he knew he always would lose, he also knew he had a chance of winning if this light never died.

Mirio carefully helped his friend up. He didn't ask again what drove him to tears and to hide in the bathroom stall. He simply wrapped him up in his arms and squeezed.

"You know," he said, making sure Tamaki felt all his affection before he released his grip. "It's lunchtime now. You want to get something to eat?"

"Sure…"

The blond smiled, "What sounds good today sunshine?"

His friend's face ripened into a bright red within seconds, and he quickly pressed his forehead to the wall to avoid his warm and caring gaze as he spoke quietly. "T…takoyaki…"

He stared at his feet, at the red converse next to the dark sneakers. He thought about their friendship, how it too was like their shoes, his worn from his anxiety, and Mirio's cared for by the strength of his smile.

He didn't want a new pair of shoes. He just wanted someone to teach him how to care for them.

And for a moment, he forgot why he even came to the bathroom at all.

"Alright, sounds good. Let's go!"

Tamaki wordlessly followed his best friend out of the bathroom, watching his back as he marched forward and chatted excitedly about homework and practice and training and other needless things that made him grateful to hear. He couldn't hear the tiny voice in his head, the negative webs it spun over the pleasant words of someone who dearly cared for him. Who called him his sunshine.

He realized his friend was wrong as he bowed his head and watched with a small smile the blobs of red and black dancing in opaque outlines on the floor. He was wrong when he endearingly recited those song lyrics to him. Mirio was Tamaki's sunshine.

You'll never know dear, how much I love you. Please don't take my sunshine away…

Hope you enjoyed reading.

Soul Spirt