(Completed) Bloody Petals {Miritama}

3

Tamaki woke up the next morning to the sound of shouting. In his groggy state, it took him a minute to realize whoever was shouting was calling out his name, and the voice was getting closer. He glanced over at his clock and nearly shrieked; he was going to be late for school!

He jumped out of bed only to realize he'd fallen asleep in his school uniform, on top of the covers. With a sigh, he tried his best to smooth out the wrinkles in his clothes and was quickly running a comb through his hair when his door opened, and there was Mirio.

"Tamaki, there you are!" Mirio smiled and engulfed him in a big hug. "You left early yesterday, and Nejire wouldn't tell me why, so I was worried sick about you. And when I tried coming over last night to check on you, your mom said you were asleep, so I--"

"M-Mirio!" Tamaki cut him off in the middle of his ramble. He went silent, pulling away from him with an awkward laugh and another smile. Tamaki's throat burned, a now familiar ticklish feeling starting at the back.

"I'm okay," he told him, swallowing hard to try and get rid of that feeling. "I just...had a...p-panic attack yesterday when one of the first years tried to provoke me, and Recovery Girl decided to let me go home early. But I'm okay now, I promise."

"Are you sure? Which first year was it? Do you want me to talk to them? Because I can--"

"Mirio, please!" Tamaki flinched at his own outburst. He never raised his voice. Ever. So it was no surprise when Mirio's expression turned slightly shocked. This time, he simply nodded and stepped back into the hallway to wait for him to finish getting ready.

He finished smoothing out all the wrinkles he could, did what he could for his hair, grabbed his backpack and headed out. Mirio followed behind him, for the first time being completely silent. The entire walk to school, Tamaki mentally scolded himself for blowing up at him. The last thing he wanted was for Mirio to think he was mad at him. Because he wasn't. He could never be angry enough to blame Mirio for his situation.

This was his problem, not Mirio's. It wasn't fair of him to take it out on anybody but himself.

~~~~~

That day at lunch, Mirio was invited to join another group of students at their table. At first he didn't want to leave, but Tamaki and Nejire convinced him it was okay. That left the two of them alone, and Nejire wasted no time in starting up the conversation they both knew was coming.

"So, you looked it up, right?" Nejire asked.

Tamaki set down his fork and nodded, moving his gaze down to his hands as they fidgeted in his lap. "Y-Yeah...I did."

"It's Mirio, isn't it?"

Another nod. "I don't...there's no one else it can be."

A comforting hand came up to rub circles on his back, soon followed by her head resting on his arm. "I don't know what to say, Tamaki. I don't want you to die. Have you...thought about telling him?"

"I can't tell him." That was another thing he was absolutely sure of. Mirio could never be allowed to find out. He knew he would never forgive himself if he were to find out that he was the reason Tamaki was dying. "It would devastate him."

"He deserves to know the truth, Tamaki." She squeezed his forearm. "Even if you don't tell him who it is, he deserves to at least know what's going on."

"You're right...I-I'll tell him. Just...not right now. There's still plenty of time left to tell him before--" he couldn't bring himself to say the words. He thought they may actually have physically gotten stuck in his throat before he realized it was something else causing the feeling.