Work Text:
Right now, at this moment, Tamaki was having his nails painted by Nejire during their sleepover that was originally meant to be for studying. He was waiting for his left hand to dry while Nejire focused on perfecting the midnight blue coat she was working on. It sort of bothered him that Nejire didn’t know what color between blue and amethyst to choose, so she’s creating a solid color before creating a single stripe in the middle.
Frankly, he liked blue more but this was alright.
“We should uh… really get to work… Mirio already did his part of the project, so uh… Oh. I don’t.. want to dye my hair… that shade of blue. It’s uhm really bright.” That was an understatement, the color Nejire brought out was the same shade of her own hair and Tamaki wasn’t ready for that yet.
Regardless, Nejire seems to understand his reluctance and scours through her closet for something else. She lays down a whole bunch of vibrant colors featuring electric green, bubblegum pink, sunshine yellow, and then two duller colors of slate blue and a soft white. Tamaki stares at the boxes intently, highly aware that Nejire would refuse to give up her antics until he chooses a color, so he picks slate blue as highlights.
Inside he prays that he doesn’t look too stupid, but Nejire’s shown him at least five pictures of her with wildly dyed hair and she looks pretty great. This was Nejire though; from what Tamaki’s seen so far Nejire looks great in anything.
She could probably make a trash bag look good, dear god. He was friends with models and -
“Heeyy!!! Stop thinkin’ so hard for a sec’, I’m gonna start workin’ on your hair, why don’t you… Uhm… Tell me a story or somethin’? Talk to me about whatever instead of keeping it to yourself, it could be like… Practice or mental exercise, y’know?!” Tamaki’s clutching a pillow in his right hand, digging his recently dried nails into the soft fabric while Nejire sits behind him holding a showercap and gloves.
“G - give me a second to think of s - something that you might want to uh, listen to me ramble about.” He hears Nejire sigh behind him, unable to differ if that was a fond sigh or a wary sigh but feeling conscious about it nonetheless. Tamaki traces the patterns on the throwing pillow, murmuring: “... What do you want me to talk about?”
Truthfully, Nejire had wanted to have a sleepover with Tamaki for a while, and it’s because she’s seen Tamaki become very excited to contribute to a discussion once. It was the one discussion that she found herself sitting back on the sidelines, watching others become equally amazed by how much Tamaki could add onto the argument; he just knew so much that even the person who started the entire conversation gave up.
But of course, somebody had to make an incredibly rude remark on Tamaki’s vast knowledge of the subject, causing him to practically fold in on himself like a cloth doll and run away from the scene altogether.
She and Mirio both sprinted after Tamaki to reassure him that there wasn’t anything wrong with being a little more informed on a subject than someone else. As they were turning corners and shouting his name, Mirio had commented that it had been a while since he’s seen Tamaki get so visibly upbeat about something, making the entire situation all the more disheartening and aggravating to watch him get shut-down like that.
Mirio looked so pissed and tense that entire day because, in the end, they didn’t find him anywhere no matter how hard they looked. In fact, Tamaki didn’t really show up or make his presence known until a week passed. Mirio didn’t need to advise her to not remind their friend of the event, they simply just accepted that he was back and did their best to soothe him without bringing up the topic.
With that in mind, Nejire responds to his question with:
“Oh Tamaki, Tamaki, Tamaki… I can listen to you talk about anything forever, you’re, like, my bestfriend! I’d be down to listen to you talk about lightbulbs for hours on end. Well, not really but y’know what I mean! Anyway, why don’t you tell me about your interests, your thoughts! Lay it on me, pal!”
And you know what? Tamaki, albeit the hesitation at first, takes a chance and trusts her not to make fun of him. So he begins talking about the books he’s read and movies he’s seen. He dives into the fandom’s flaws, tearing apart a character limb by limb to create an oral analysis of their personality. He even puts all of the minor protagonists and antagonists in the spotlight, making them seem like they were the main focus of the plot.
Although, she can’t see it since she’s behind him the whole time, Tamaki was smiling appreciatively when the time flies by that Nejire hasn’t said anything except encouraging questions about a character or plot, urging him to keep ranting. He picks up quickly and easily on what she’s doing for him and is grateful for it.
He does have to get up to wash his hair though, but doesn’t mind when Nejire, after delivering him a new pair of clothes, sticks around while he rinses the hair dye out in the shower.
It gives him flashbacks to when Mirio used to invite himself into Tamaki’s house whenever he had something new to talk about. It comforts and informs him that this isn’t much different. He just needed to remember that Nejire’s a close friend… A relatively new close friend, but a close friend nonetheless.
God, it feels just like yesterday he was comforting Nejire about her bullies in U.A.
When he’s busy cleaning his ears, Nejire’s busy reminiscing about the cheerleading team she used to be friends with back in middle school. Somewhere along the line, Nejire accidentally opens the floodgates by mentioning how she wanted to know what Mirio might want for his upcoming birthday, and if Tamaki, as Mirio’s boyfriend, knew if there might be something that Mirio wanted.
Honestly, you would never know how descriptive Tamaki could be when describing wrapping paper unless you were Nejire. He begins listing off Mirio’s favorite clothing brands as Nejire’s considering getting him light-up heelys, and when she voices that suggestion out, Tamaki snickers and mentions that Mirio already had several pairs that he bought on his own accord.
Great minds think alike, Nejire muses.
She continues to weigh her options of what to get Mirio in the living room while Tamaki puts on a new pair of pajamas. So far, this sleepover has been very beneficial to learning more about her friends’ interest be it directly or indirectly. They keep discussing how overrated Romeo and Juliet was when Tamaki sits down next to her, his hair slightly puffier than normal from using Nejire’s conditioner.
It was pretty cute, she wishes she could capture it on camera.
However, it was very late now. Before Tamaki knocks out entirely out of mental and physical exhaustion, Nejire pats him on the back and thanks him for opening up to her, making it a point to remember to mention how fetching he looks with slate blue highlights in the morning. She assumes that he looks good with it, the mental image looked good at least. Nejire doubts he even registered what she said, but that’s fine.
Tamaki’s off in dreamland the second he crawls into his futon, leaving Nejire awake in the silence despite her mother suggesting that she goes to bed as well. Sleep? Well, she could go and fulfill her needed hours of resting, except she couldn’t; Tamaki was right, they had a project to finish, but since he was asleep right now and unable to do his part, Nejire doesn’t mind finishing both their share of the work as a token of thanks for being her friend.
She was going to regret this in the morning, but that’s fine because friendship.