A/N: This was written as a response to a request for a Tamaki/Nejire fic. I don't particularly ship them myself but I love the Big 3 overall and I especially adore them as a friendship OT3. Mirio and Tamaki rocked my entire world the last arc but I really wish we'd seen more of Nejire, especially since she had a pretty cool power. Hopefully we'll see more of her in the future (and honestly more of the girls in general…). Please remember to read and review!

Summary: "You're one in a million," she repeats again, her smile growing soft, "and I'm really glad to call you my friend." [tamaki/nejire][oneshot/drabble]

Disclaimer: I do not own Boku no Hero Academia, Kohei Horikoshi does.

"Frog legs!"

Startled, Tamaki jumps as Nejire plops down in the empty seat in front of him and slams down a bento box on his desk. It's lunchtime and there are sparkles in her eyes and a mischievous grin on her lips that were making him very uneasy.

"W-what?" He struggles to find his voice as she unwraps the bento box, her ultramarine eyes brimming with intense curiosity.

"Frog legs, silly!" She repeats with a laugh, "I brought you frog legs for lunch!"

Tamaki gulps and leans further back into his seat, now even more afraid to ask his next question. "W-why did you bring frog legs—?"

"To see if you'd grow frog legs if you ate them, of course!" She interrupts. "Just imagine how far you could jump!" She quickly breaks apart a pair of wooden chopsticks and opens the bento box to reveal that – goodness – she really had brought frog legs! Visibly pleased with herself, she looks up into his eyes and grins. "I'm curious!"

"H-Hadou," he stammers, the color draining from his face, "I—."

"Bottoms up!" She interrupts again, picking up a pair of frog legs with the chopsticks and holding it in front of him to eat. She was relentless, mowing him down like a storm but there's that childlike curiosity in her eyes, the kind that always made him weak and relent to her and so with a heavy, resigned sigh he opens his mouth and lets her feed him the frog legs. He chews and swallows and by the end of the school day he's rewarded with a whooping cheer from Nejire as he reveals to her his newly grown pair of frog legs and the wide grin on her face makes him think that maybe it's not such a bad idea to go along with her experiments.

Until the next day.

"Escargot!" She proclaims, happily skipping toward his desk and plopping down in the desk in front of him. "Imagine how useful a snail shell would be!"

"Hadou," he tries again, "first, where did you even find escargot? Second, I—."

"Bottoms up!"

Tamaki could almost swear there were tears in his eyes as he went along with her wishes for the second time that week.

It's the third day and Tamaki knows at this point what to expect when the lunch bell rings. Sure enough, the bell rings, some of their classmates file out of the classroom to buy lunch while others eat their lunches at their desk, and as expected, Nejire picks up her pair of bento boxes, one for herself and the other for her experiment for the day, and skips on over to the empty desk in front of him.

"Can you eat inanimate objects?" She starts off and Tamaki's usually thin eyes widen in surprise. He had never anticipated that her curiosity would ever veer into the realm of the nonsensical.

"I…I…," he starts, genuinely caught off guard, "I mean…I think I have to be able to digest it?"

There's a pause and she grows unusually quiet. Tamaki swallows hard and averts his eyes to the side, unsettled by her blank stare.

"Do you find me annoying?" Nejire finally asks. She tilts her head to the side with her question, her lilac blue hair swaying with her motions. There's no hurt in her voice but there is a casual resignation, as if she expected him to admit that he did. "Most people do," she admits.

"No!" The words fly faster from his mouth than he anticipates and even he's taken aback by the strength of his words. "I don't think you're annoying!" He looks at her and waves his hands in front of him, desperate to get the very idea out of her head. "I think it's amazing how you're curious about the world. A lot of people aren't…so… so the fact that you are is…is…," he scrunches his hands together, his gaze suddenly falling to his desk as he looks away from her.

His voice grows small.

"I think it's beautiful…" he admits, struggling to form words as the nervous pitter-patter of his heartbeat chokes him, "in fact, sometimes I wonder why someone like you would want to even be friends with…with someone like me…" His voice squeezes in his throat and sweat gathers in his palms. He quickly tries to wipe away the sweat on his trousers but cannot lift his gaze to look at her, confident that she had to be disgusted at the trembling, sweaty, insecure mess that was him.

"Someone like you?" She pipes up and her voice weighs down like gravity on his head, keeping his gaze locked on the floor. "What's wrong with someone like you?"

Well, that was a question he didn't have a shortage of answers to. The list of his pitfalls was extensive, where could he even begin? He was insecure, he was weak, he lacked self-confidence, he was shy, he was timid, he found it difficult to communicate with others and make friends, he was awkward, he made others uncomfortable, he—

"You're one in a million, Amajiki!"

The trembling his fingertips stops at her words, and he finally lifts his head up to look into her eyes. There is a pure and childish earnestness and confidence in her ultramarine eyes that overwhelmed him like the sea, that buffeted him in waves and waves of a feeling that he wanted to drown in: courage, strength, hope.

She reminded him of Mirio.

"You're one in a million," she repeats again, her smile growing soft, "and I'm really glad to call you my friend."

Friend…

"So don't say stuff like that," she warns, wagging her finger, "it makes me sad, okay?"

He nods dumbly, still stricken by her words, "okay…"

"Okay! Come on, friend!" Nejire grabs his hand with a reassuring squeeze and the mischievous glint in her eyes returns, sending a chill running down his spine. "I wonder what would happen if you ate pufferfish! Maybe you'd be able to spray poison!"

"Pufferfish is lethal!" He argues in vain, desk rattling as she pulls him out of his seat and leads him away, "I'd probably die if I tried to eat it!"

"But I'm curious!"

"Hadou!"

And then she throws her head back and laughs – a sea-spray sort of laugh, one that bursts out loud and strong with the strength of the ocean but trails off with the lightness of a morning mist; a laugh that pulls him in and twists and churns his heart like a whirlpool – as merciless and terrifying and beautiful as the sea. Listening to her laugh he can't help but relax, shoulders slackening and the tension disappearing from his expression as he squeezes her hand back in kind, comforted by her reckless warmth.

Mirio was like the sun and Nejire was like the sea.

And he still didn't know where he fit into the equation of the Big 3 (or if he honestly fit in at all) but with wings on his back and the air beneath his feet he was sure he would find out.

Whether he was going to burn from flying too close to the sun or shatter his bones from falling into the sea…

He would find out.