Work Text:
It was late at night, around 1:30 when Tomura woke up to his phone being called, yet when he reached for it, the caller hung up already. The brightness of the phone screen background had Tomura squinting as he rolled over to see who it was in his hand. Once he opened the app to a much more relaxing dark mode screen, he rubbed at his eyes, tapping over to the missed calls screen.
When his eyes locked onto that missed call's name, his heart stopped.
5 years earlier...
"Tomura! Hey, over here!"
From across the high school cafeteria, he could spot a blonde sitting in a more secluded corner, actually the spot he used to take around a month ago before some group of rowdy boys in the science club took the spot. Some uppity group that depended on the school's sports funds to keep the group dynamic afloat. But it seemed this blonde took it before they could get there.
Reluctantly, Tomura spared a glance back at the table he usually sat at. It was a group of misfits, that was for sure, but they were close. Dabi, Toga, Jin, and a couple others. They bonded over their rather nihilistic views of the world, and that no one else really wanted to chat with them. Tomura might have been the most guilty for that, he tended to be intimidating to most people. Except for this person.
Dabi, who was sitting at the table, squinted his eyes as he saw Tomura's unsure glance, making eye contact, but then saw the other part of the equation. Dabi was very expressive, to say the least, the look he had on his face was almost priceless when he noticed the blonde in the corner, almost too obviously hiding that he looked at him in the first place. Very directly, Tomura's comrade nodded at him to go. The message no doubt being 'Go have your gay moment, don't worry about us!'
Dabi was the only one to really know Tomura's predicament. The truth was, he had a massive crush on this blonde in particular, he had for almost the whole time they attended this school, and Dabi was trying to play cupid ever since he found out.
Tomura, flustered, ended up taking his seat by the blonde, setting his lunch to the side.
"Ayyy, finally, Tomu! Why'd it take you so long?"
Tomura decided to leave that unanswered. "You... Got my spot back. Thanks, Daichi."
"No problem!" Daichi smiled impossibly bright.
In the present...
Tomura shot up, scrambling to hunch over his phone, the name "Daichi Yamada" staring plainly at his face from his contacts screen. He hadn't heard from him since they graduated. He found himself struggling to hold his phone with how much he was trembling. The green and red buttons to the side of the name watching him like vultures. The thought wouldn't leave his head, of what Daichi could want, why Daichi was up at 1:30 AM! His finger hovered over the buttons, the choice paralyzing him. Does he delete the record and pretend it never even happened, the undeniably safe option, or does he dare...
The choice was an illusion. The notification almost made Tomura jump when he recieved a text.
Daichi Ya...
Hey um, my weddings in a xouple months here and I was wonderinf...
5 years before...
Tomura had texted Daichi on a cold fall evening in a panic, knowing he was the one living closest to him, just a block or so down the road.
Daichi Yamada
Daichi
Daichi please can I come over
I don't feel safe
Yeah, of course! What's the rush?
It doesn't matter I just need out
Okay Tomu, just calm down, my backdoor's open.
Tomura could hear his parents yelling downstairs, his heartrate climbing up the wall as he heard his name said in such a malicious intent by who obviously was his father. Footsteps furiously squeaked against the wooden stairs. He locked the door with all the intensity of setting a bomb on a timer, backing up to the opposite side of the room, where his window became his only exit and hiding place behind him.
Turning to look down through it, he was terrified. He'd never tried, but as the footsteps grew louder, he grew desperate. He unlatched the window, and reluctantly crawled out.
Daichi found Tomura, sweating, out of breath, and crying, as he rushed over to him. The world moved in slow motion as the silver-haired boy clung to him and melted in his arms. His shirt was soaked with tears as they spent the warm summer night together, and Tomura vented to him about his life. Daichi never had anything go on in his life with similar weight to compare, yet... He couldn't help but want to feel like someone safe for Tomura to turn to. Someone who didn't necessarily need to understand, just someone who needed to be there.
Tomura looked up to Daichi with bloodshot eyes, stressing, "He's going to kill me...! I don't want to die, I just-" His voice cut out with such agony it sounded like he was gagging on his own words, and Tomura always hated how it felt exactly as it sounded. "I just- I want to live as I really am, I'm not hurting anybody! I don't get why he wants to hurt me...!" Tomura shut his eyes, trying to prevent the rushing water that was spilling from them like an open wound, and he covered his eyes.
And it was when he was covering his eyes that he was surprised the most. He felt Daichi's hand shift to rest in his hair, and he felt a soft pair of lips meet his.
"Mm-!" Tomura's eyes were still blurry when he removed his hands from covering them. Daichi was...
He hugged his arms around the blonde boy kissing him, and savored the moment as long as he could, which it didn't last for so.
The blonde pulled back, and Tomura's red-rimmed, yet blissful eyes were the first things he saw.
"Daichi, you-..." He cut himself off, having not the confidence to confront him about it.
"Tomu..." Daichi started, the warmth between them inescapable. So many thoughts passed through his brain before he offered, "... Here, take my hand."
And Tomura did. They danced.
They danced the whole night, while not a single note of music played.
In the present...
Tomura opened the text and couldn't help but tear up at the sight, the sheer state of the message that was sent. It was a proposal, yes, but not the kind he'd wanted, wished for for so long, it was...
-
Daichi Yamada
Hey um, my weddings in a xouple months here and I was wonderinf if you woulz maybe want ti be my besy man, I miss you Tomu
-
He was, so drunk... Had to be. Why else, would he go and contact his crush in the middle of the night after he proposed? That's what Daichi was thinking, as he hunched over his desk, his heart beating wildly out of control.
He was happy, why was he doing this?
A memory came back of the pair five years ago, sitting at their designated spot in the lunchroom, but the guys from the science club approached their former spot with threats in their eyes and poison in their covered smiles.
Chisaki demanded, "Hey, we rightly claimed this spot from those losers, what gives you the right to come back?"
Tomura said nothing, just averted his eyes and continued eating his lunch.
"Hey, We're talking to you!" The broad one called Kendo shouted in his face, which caused him to spill his lunch.
The anger was evident in Tomura's eyes, "You self-righteous pricks, there's tons of different spots, and we were here first, pick a different one!"
"Oh, and what are you gonna do about it?" Touya Setsuno, the most irritating one of the group besides Chisaki maybe taunted, "You know why you can't be here, in fact, I can pull up a text to your father myself!"
"Wait- No!"
Daichi could see the panic in his eyes, genuine. It made him feel uneasy. Not much could actually shake Tomura so for him to be scared of something...
"I'll... I'll go tell Mister Shigaraki about this if you do anything...!" Tomura defended desperately.
"And what? What will that geezer do now, now that he's retired?"
"He's not retired! He-"
Daichi stood up, putting his hand in front of Tomura, cutting him off as politely as he could before he directed his attention to the boys. "I'll report you to Mr. Yamada right now if you don't leave me and my friend alone."
"Oh yeah? And what's he gonna do?"
"He's got connections to Chief Naomasa of the Police Force, and they've already got their eye on you, don't they, Overhaul?"
Chisaki stumbled back slightly, a guilty look around, before he dismissed the rest of the group, "Guys, let's uh... Let's go somewhere else."
As a light clamoring between thr group faded into the background of voices echoing through the cafeteria, Tomura looked at him with stars in his eyes... "You... saved me. Thank you"
Daichi could never get that look Tomura gave him out of his head.
-
In the present...
Tomura stared at the message, paralyzed with indecision, wanting so desperately to cry in his arms yet again, wishing that he'd not gone and proposed already, that Daichi would've waited for him, but... That's not what was going on here.
That was a selfish thought, that after waiting so long and taking absolutely no action, thinking how he could ever possibly deserve Daichi.
And so Tomura couldn't bear to look at it anymore. And so, he closed the app, and put the phone away. Daichi never got a response, and neither of them enjoyed a full night's sleep.
And maybe they were better for it.