Take your time (Tamaki x Reader)

Alone Together

You stand besides the taller indigo haired boy in the hallway outside of the library as you reach into your pocket to pull out the small crumpled up school schedule for the day. Even though you're starting to get more familiar with this new town and the people in it, you still haven't memorized all your classes yet. "Geometry... what do you have?" You ask, looking up at Tamaki and raising an eyebrow in a question. His adams apple bobs as he swallows and then licks his lips a bit nervously. 

Oh right. The people. You give him a nod of understanding and shrug, shoving the piece of paper away again. "I'm assuming you have something else." That's fine really, since there's only one more class in the day and you can see him later. "Wanna meet up after school or something?" You suggest, offering a small smile and doing your best to ignore the loud conversations and shouting across the hallway as students push past you, hurrying to get to their next location in time. Tamaki hesitates and then nods slowly, looking like he already regrets saying yes. Well that's great. "Uh.. see you later then," you say quickly, nodding and tightening your grip on your backpack before turning away and starting navigate towards math. 

For some reason you feel funny, a little lightheaded and out of breath, and have to remind yourself to keep walking. Before this, before he actually engaged with you, talking to Tamaki had been like... a game. No, that sounded cruel. It wasn't exactly like that. Sure he was cute, and you had to admit it had been fun trying to nudge him out of his shell. But now... something felt different. Like it was serious. You didnt just want him to be comfortable with you anymore, no, you wanted him to LIKE you. But that was stupid. The two of you had just started to talk, he couldn't have said more than ten words to you over the course of four days. And being around you seemed to terrify him to his core. He looked as if he was in physical pain every time he saw your face. How could that ever possibly be romantic? 

You shook yourself out of these thoughts as you arrived at the math class, double checking the number on the door before entering and finding a seat in the back of the classroom. You slump down in the empty chair, biting your lip a bit nervously as your eyes scan the room for any hints of what you might be learning today. Math has always been hard for you, and it can be especially frustrating when everyone else seemed to get it. It made you feel stupid. Writing was much better- there you couldn't be wrong. You just put down on the page how you felt and what you were thinking and kept working along the way. There was no final answer. There was no confusing formula. You got to spin your ideas into a web and then carefully separate the delicate webs, strengthening them one by one until you could string them together again to create something beautiful. Math was not beautiful. It didn't help that you never understood what was happening.

You blink in surprise and straighten up when you realize that the teacher is talking. How long has that been going on for? How much have you missed? Your breath starts to speed up and your vision spins a little. This is ridiculous! You'll be fine, why are you freaking out so much? Maybe taking care of Tamaki has kept your mind preoccupied enough to forget about the stress of school for a little while. Apparently not anymore. You take a deep breath, trying to ground yourself and focus on the numbers and equations being written on the whiteboard in front of you.

About an hour or two later, you've survived your math and Spanish classes and the school day is done. God that took longer than the day before. Is this what it felt like for Tamaki everyday? No wonder he had so many panic attacks. You didn't know how he survived school. Well at least it was over... even though it was only Monday. Forget it! You took a deep breath, biting your lip as you trudged over to your locker to put down the heavy binder, then bumped into someone and stumbled backwards. Who the hell was blocking your locker? "Sorry," you mumbled halfheartedly, not really feeling the apology as you looked up to see who it was. To your surprise, you were met with the sight of dark purple hair and a bright red face. Tamaki. Had he been waiting for you at your locker? You smiled wearily, still tired from the last few classes and pushed a strand of hair behind your ear that had been getting in your eyes. "Hey. You waiting for me?"

The boy's eyes widened in surprise and horror as he quickly shook his head, looking desperate. You couldn't help but roll your eyes and chuckle lightly at the expression. "It's fine. Nice to see you." You put your stuff into the locker, the close it loudly and click the padlock before looking back up at him. Was he always this tall? It was probably a lot less noticeable considering all the time the boy spent hunched over and staring at the ground. You smile, reaching over and linking your arm through his before he can stop you or you have time to really think it through. "C'mon, let's go find your brother. Or better yet- the angry loud one, I'm starving." Tamaki smiles a little at your word choice but shakes his head, still looking like you might suddenly explode at him for disagreeing with you.

"Uh- no... th- thhh-" he spoke quietly, pushing out soft air in-between the words as he tried to explain something to you. "Thhhey're on a date." He finished, looking relieved that no one else seemed to have heard him speaking. 

"Ahhh.." you nod with understanding, a little disappointed to be honest. Cookies sounded good. If Jirou was here, you would have gone to a coffee shop with her, but she had texted an hour earlier that she had an emergency band meeting tonight, whatever that meant. You glanced up at Tamaki out of the corner of your eye and recognized him doing the same to you, then quickly glancing away and blushing furiously. Fuck! When did everything get so awkward? It had been fine before in the library or at his house, but both places there were other people there too you supposed. Now it was just the two of you. Alone. You took a deep breath before looking up at him again and smiling as brightly as you could manage. "Hey- ah, would you want to go get something to eat? I'm totally starving... oh- don't worry, I'll pay!"

Tamaki looked surprised, then glanced around as if you had been talking to someone else. You waited, not really knowing what else to do. Then after a second, he blushed again and slowly nodded. Alright then. The two of you were going on a date.

**Hey thanks for your patience! Even if it's just one person reading this, I really appreciate it. I hope you like it and please forgive if it is not up to par with the rest of the story, I'm trying to get back into writing. If you have any ideas for plots or anything that should happen in the future or anything I should change, please tell me! Otherwise, I just want to thank you for giving me a chance and I really hope that you enjoy my story. Take care of yourselves!**