Tamaki has gotten a lot closer with Mirio lately and his actions not only to his Kohai. But, To other people as well. Normally, he probably would've been so scared to even get close to his underclassmen let alone complete strangers. But, that just says something about how much of a big impact Mirio has made in his life. Sure he's still anxious and is still scared of confrontation.
But, even with the smallest bit of confidence Tamaki gained from just being around him a lot. Mirio's really proud of him and he's been showing Tamaki tons of affection because of it. At first, Tamaki got really flustered and embarrassed whenever Mirio would hug him, hold his hand, or even just compliment him. But, now Tamaki just accepts it and blushes a lot less than he normally does. But, recently he's been questioning their relationship. He gets butterflies in his stomach, he's been getting nervous around him. Which, Was really unusual for him. And,Just being a complete trainwreck.
Like this one time when he and Mirio were out and about at a nearby mall. They were just doing some window shopping, talking about hero work, and just having a lot of fun being together. Everything was going well. Until both of them decide to head to a nearby cat cafe that Nejire was telling them about a few weeks ago. On the way there Mirio seemed a little off.
Tamaki immediately took notice of this. But, he didn't want to ask him about it cause it might freak him out a little. Tamaki looked down and saw that Mirio's hand was reaching out to Tamaki's. It was almost like Mirio wanted to hold Tamaki's hand. But, He seemed very hesitant to go through with it. Without any second thoughts, Tamaki slowly reached his hand out towards Mirio's. Or, at least tried to because as soon as Mirio felt something on the side of his hand he flinched and swiped his out of the way. He had a scared look on his face. Only to realize that it was Tamaki trying to hold his hand.
"OH! I'm so sorry Maki! I didn't know it was you. I thought it was something else and I freaked out."
Tamaki saw that Mirio was really surprised. Like he was spacing out and wasn't even thinking of anything. Tamaki realized this and quickly apologized for scaring him.
"I-i'm so sorry Mirio. It's just that... I saw your hand reaching out for mine so I thought-"
Mirio cut him off and said
"Oh uh, was it? Hahahaha. I didn't even realize it. I'm sorry maki. I promise it won't happen again."
Tamaki looked kinda down after he said that and they continued walking. In his head, Tamaki said
"Why? Why'd I think he was trying to hold my hand? Idiot. I'm such an idiot."
But, right as he said that he glanced over at Mirio. And, he saw that his face was bright red. Like, Ripe Tomato kinda red. He should know because whenever Nejire saw Tamaki blushing when Mirio shows him affection she pulls out a picture of a tomato on her phone and goes
"Hm, I see no difference."
Which, Would make Mirio laugh his ass off. But, Tamaki would start chasing her around and yelling
"I don't look like a tomato!"
Like, They were two kids in an elementary school classroom. Mirio had his hand over his mouth and had a worried look on his face. Tamaki looked away and acted like everything was fine. But, what made things worse was the fact that he heard Mirio muttering something to himself. He couldn't hear most of it. But, what he did hear.
"Ok Mirio. Just calm down, act cool in front of Tamaki and he won't think you're... "weird".
That single sentence made Tamaki a complete mess the rest of the way there.