sick sunshine
summary: when you miss the work study discussion, your oldest friend, mirio togata, takes it upon himself to find out what's wrong. | fluffy drabble, slight angst, mentions of past injuries
pairing: mirio togata x gn!reader
a/n: gang this sucks i know :.) also dont even ask me whats been going on everything is happening at the same time rn lmao. too much to debrief but regardless hope y'all enjoy.
YOU WERE STIRRED from your fitful sleep by a rapid knocking on your door. you groaned, tossing your arm over your eyes.
“can you leave my assignments there, ochaco-chan?” you called, your voice raspy from a lack of use.
the knocks quieted. then, “i’m not ochaco-kouhai, but i don’t mind being called mirio-chan!”
you stiffened. fuck. “togata, i told you not to skip class,” you scolded weakly. a throbbing pain that shot through your head had you inhaling sharply, and you prayed he didn’t hear. you cleared your throat. “togata, i’m fine, really,” you mustered, propping yourself up on the bed and facing the shut door.
“[name]-channn,” mirio whined from the other side of the door. “can i come in? please? i dont want you to be sick alone.”
for a moment, you remembered a different time. when you were young, still new to the neighborhood, and you were so homesick that you were bedridden for nearly a week. and during that time, mirio, your brand-new classmate, who had taken to walking home with you after school, stopped by and visited every day that your grandfather would let him in. and when you got better, he would pick you up from your house every morning and drop you off every evening.
“door’s unlocked,” you muttered. the door swung open, revealing mirio with a crease in his brows, a few crinkled bags in his right hand, and his school bag thrown over his left shoulder.
“you should’ve texted me the moment you realized you were sick,” he scolded, toeing off his slippers and hurrying to you after he’d closed the door. he set the bags by the edge of your bed and kneeled beside you. “what hurts? i got a few different kinds of medicine, and i know you don’t like soup but this is the chicken-noodle one my dad makes that you like, and-”
“mirio,” you whispered, and he stopped immediately. you offered a weak smile, propping yourself up a little higher. “i’m alright. you didn’t have to go and get all this for me.”
you saw his annoyance in the way he stiffened. in the way he smiled tight enough it looked like a grimace. in the way he refused to meet your gaze, instead staring hard at the pool of blankets around your waist.
instead of responding, he inhaled deep enough his shoulders moved, then reached up to check if you had a fever. he relaxed - just a little - once he felt that you didn’t, and pulled back enough to glare at you.
“how many times have i told you to stop saying stuff like that?” he sighed, dropping his hand to cup your cheek. “just- let me take care of you, yeah?”
guilt twisted your stomach. after how much you'd worried him with your part in the kamino incident, especially with your lengthy hospitalization after going toe-to-toe with all for one, you should’ve realized he’d be a little more sensitive, especially when it was considering you.
fuck it, you thought. what was the harm? you were sick, not in the midst of a fight. and mirio already had the patience of a saint when it came to you; who knew when he’d grow tired of it? of you?
“just this once,” you muttered, but the way he grinned was as if he’d just won a billion yen in a scratch-off. “mirio-”
“nope!” he said, scooping you out of bed with an arm under your knees and the other around your back, paying no mind to the way you shrieked and grasped at his shirt. “i’m gonna take such incredible care of you that your germs will run away!”
mentally, you facepalmed. but you let him have his moment.
thirty minutes later, mirio had finally calmed down - he’d been forcing spoonful after spoonful of chicken noodle soup down your throat until you threatened to throw up on him - and had wrapped you in a blanket burrito and set you sideways on his lap. you knew he was clingy, but you figured he might be a little extra right now due to you being sick and all.
he was fiddling with his phone, but you didn’t care to squint at the screen. he was warm, and solid, and it had been a while since you’d been held like this. so you shut your eyes and leaned into him, letting yourself relax for once.
after a few moments, soft piano music began to play. you squinted up at mirio, pulling back to look at him, but he just tugged you back to his chest.
“mirio?” you asked, stifling a yawn against your hand. “why’re you playing piano music?”
you felt his chest vibrate beneath your cheek as he hummed. “it’s sleep piano music, sunshine,” he corrected. the endearment made your stomach flip, but you ignored it. “so you can sleep your germs away.”
as he spoke, he moved you both so you were laying down. he laid behind you, one arm tossed over your side to pull you into the warmth he radiated. “and,” he added, nosing into the crease of your neck, “to help you relax. you’re always so stressed,” he chided.
“’m sorry,” you mumbled, squirming a little at the feel of his breath on the back of your neck. you knew he wasn’t saying it to criticize you; moreso to just.. to remind you that he was here. and that he wanted you to be safe and to be cared for, even if you saw it as unnecessary. “i don’t mean to be.”
“said the student who throws themselves into every school incident they can find,” mirio muttered, his hold around you tightening for a split second. “you- you scared me, sunshine, y’know?” you felt more than heard his breath catch, and you felt your heart crack. “just- watching that screen, and seeing that villain throw you like you were nothing, and your scream, my gods-”
you turned in his hold before he could stop you. you could feel his shoulders shaking, his breaths coming out in short puffs. mirio togata, the boy you’d always thought could hold the world in his hands from sheer determination alone, was crying. because of you.
“mirio, wait, i’m sorry-” you whispered, cupping his cheeks and trying to thumb away his tears as fast as they came. “i didn’t- i didn’t mean to worry you, i just- i had to help, and-” gods, could you be any worse at this?
“and now you’re sick, and you still don’t tell me stuff,” mirio continued, reaching up to hold your hands in his. he shut his eyes, those beautiful blue eyes you’d come to look for whenever you walked into a room, and tried to catch his breath. “you just- gods, sunshine, please, if not for yourself, then for me, please care of yourself,” he gasped, squeezing your hands. his next words were whispered, like even he didn’t want to hear them. “i can’t bear the thought of- of you not being here one day. i- i lost you once-” the memory of your first and stupidest fight with mirio resurfaced, alongside the pain of the silent treatment you’d given each other for over two years until you’d reunited at ua “-and that tore me in two. don’t-”
“i won’t,” you rushed, cutting him off and brushing your thumb under his eye, collecting the tears yet to fall. “i won’t, mirio, i-”
what could you say? what were you going to say? “i can’t lose you too”? “i care about you”? everything you and your oldest friend had been through, and you still didn’t know how to comfort him in moments like this, rare as they were (but getting more frequent with your increased risk-taking).
“i love you,” you whispered, shutting your own eyes. you felt his shock in the way he froze, the way his hands loosened around yours. “i- i get into those fights because it’s.. it’s easier if i have to deal with it. imagining you in my place, in any of those incidents, it-” your voice caught. “i can’t. i- why do you think i call nejire by her name, and tamaki by his, and i- and i always call you togata?” you asked, snifling and coughing a laugh at the same time. “i.. i love you. and i don’t want you to have to fight*,”* you finished, keeping your eyes shut as if it would protect you from his rejection.
-which never came. no, what came were his arms around you, pulling you into him so tight you lost your breath for a moment. your eyes flew open, instinctively, but he’d hidden his face in your shoulder.
“you idiot,” he laughed, keeping you pressed tight against him. “you sick, lovable, idiot.”
“i said i love you, and you call me an idiot?” you protested, trying to pry him off. he only laughed again.
“you’re an idiot because i,” he began, before moving so his lips were pressed to your ear, “love you too.”
you shivered. he’d whispered them into your ear, as if he knew it’d mess with you more. “yeah, yeah, good for you,” you muttered, attempting to wriggle free. “let me- mirio!”
“nope,” he said, and you could hear the smile in his voice. “you looove me, and i’m never gonna let you forget it,” he teased, finally falling back onto your bed and - gently - tugging you with him. his hands came up to cup your face, his palms warming your cheeks. “you’re my sunshine, yeah?” he asked, and his expression was just so.. so bright, you had to squint.
“.. yeah,” you muttered, feeling your cheeks heat. if anything, he’s the sunshine. or the actual sun. “.. can i sleep now?” you asked.
as horrible as your timing was (mirio really wanted to cuddle for a few hours out of joy, or maybe go spar tamaki to work off some of this energy), all he did was laugh. “yes, sunshine, we can sleep,” he said, still grinning.
so, you settled back beside him, your face tucked into his shoulder, and his arm around your waist. his thumb rubbed arcs back and forth on the skin just beneath the hem of your shirt, helping to lull you to sleep.
while you slept, mirio typed one-handed on his phone in all caps to both tamaki and nejire, letting them know he was “DOIN GIMPROTANT STFUF” and to “LET SNESEI KNWO IM BUSY”. he received a concerned response from tamaki, an okay from nejire, and then promptly shut off his phone.
everybody else could wait. his sunshine mattered more.