"Sunny." Mirio called.
Sunny, from where he had been covered in a mountain of blankets, buried his face deeper into his bed.
"Sunny, please." he called again.
Sunny pointedly didn't answer and instead pressed the pillow covering his head down to drown him out and stubbornly refused to acknowledge Mirio.
Mirio sighed and sat on Sunny's bed next to him "You know I can just use my quirk to talk to you face to face, right?" Mirio asked.
He didn't get a reply.
Mirio sighed and fell back and laying on top of his best friend, whom spent the last couple of hours trying and failing to ignore the rest of the world and forget what had happened today.
Normally he'd be more concerned about Sunny's severe reaction, but Miyake had already filled him in on what happened and why he had to bring an unconscious Sunny home, as well as why Oswald had his face buried in a tree.
And Sunny was taking this much better than he thought he would.
"Okay, so Oz kissed you on the forehead, and asked if you'd be interested in going on a date with him." Mirio said and Sunny whimpered perhaps reliving the whole thing in his head.
"Do you not want to go out with him?" Mirio asked, making sure to stay really quiet so that he could hear Sunny's answer.
"N-no... " Sunny mumbled after a few minutes.
"No, you don't want to go on a date, or no you want to go on a date with Oz?" Mirio inquired wanting to be extra sure.
Sunny's next noise Mirio wasn't sure was entirely human but clearly got across Sunny's difficulty to form words.
Then he muttered something Mirio couldn't hear well through the blankets "Could you repeat that, Sunny?" Mirio requested.
"I w-want to!" Sunny squeaked back, his voice cracking.
"That's great then. You two both like each other and want to go out, that's awesome for you two." Mirio said, happy for his friends.
He teased Sunny about the guys around them, but he was genuinely excited for them, and he didn't even feel any prickles of jealousy or envy like for training, which made him even happier for his friend.
"It's not." Sunny whimpered and Mirio huffed in bemused confusion.
"Why not?" Mirio questioned, ready to talk Sunny out of whatever molehill Sunny's anxiety was making into a mountain.
Sunny fell silent for a long time and Mirio was even considering using his quirk to check on him when Sunny finally spoke.
"I'm scared I d-don't like Oswald." Sunny muttered throwing a wrench into Mirio's mental process and his brain stalled.
"Eh? What do you mean? You want to go on a date with him but don't know if you like him?" Mirio questioned moving to lay beside his friend instead of on top of him.
Sunny again was silent for a while, but he could see Sunny's hands grip the pillow tightly.
"I, I'm scared that the only reason I like him is because of the villain attack on the mall. There's this thing called nightingale syndrome where you develop feelings for the person taking care of you or saved your life, and I only noticed him... that way after the mall." Sunny explained tentatively.
"And then if I go out him only to fall out of love with him... it would be horrible to lead him on like that when I know my feelings might not be real." Sunny added and Mirio knew Sunny had started to tear up under all his covers.
"Oh Sunny... " Mirio said under his breath as he placed his hand on Sunny's back over the covers.
Sadness all but crushed his earlier joy as his heart went out to his friend.
While he'd become accustomed to helping talk Sunny down from the ledges his anxiety often pushed him to, in this case he couldn't even tell Sunny that this particular fear was just him working himself up into a stupor.
Because he knew was talking about Transference.
It came up often in hero circles, Mirio could think of five different stories off the top of his head where a hero married someone that they rescued only to have horrid divorces months later.
The villain attack at the mall would be a prime example of a place where transference could occur, and if he encouraged Sunny to just go ahead and do it anyways when he did only have these feelings because of transference then Sunny would probably end up trapped in that relationship.
Sunny began to cry mostly quietly and Mirio rushed to rubbed Sunny's back "Hey, hey! Sunny this isn't that bad, we can work through this." Mirio assured, mind rushing to find a solution.
"Oz is an understanding guy, if we tell him what's up, he won't hold it against you and wait for you to sort your feelings out." Mirio told Sunny.
"How could I wait this out? We see each other every day at school." Sunny countered sounding utterly miserable.
"We can talk to Oz, stay clear of him for a while, everyone would understand Sunny and if you don't want to date him afterwards no one would blame you. People just don't want to date each other, and we could all stay friends you know." Mirio argued, trying to keep him from falling into a deeper depression spiral.
"But how am I supposed to hang out with everyone if I don't? I'd never be able to be in the same room as him again without thinking about him kissing my head or that he wanted to date me and that I broke his heart and-" Sunny's argument dissolved as he presumably began crying again.
Mirio began floundering as he tried to calm him down, having never had to fix something like this before.
"Sunny our friend group isn't so shallow that we'd all break up the second one of us has a fight, and you're over thinking all of this. There's only like, a fifty percent chance that whether you like him or not, you don't have to worry about that right now." Mirio told Sunny trying to calm him down.
It took a few hours but Mirio did manage to keep Sunny from having a full break down, though he was still buried in a mountain of blankets and Mirio chose to step outside for a breath of fresh air, going so far as to walk to the bottom floor and leaned against a side wall as he ran his hand through his hair.
This had been more complex than he first thought.
And as much as Mirio tried to assure Sunny he couldn't be absolutely sure that their new friends wouldn't be affected by things if Sunny and Oz didn't end up together.
Oz, as antagonistic he was and for all of the jabs he made, Mirio didn't think that he'd be mean about it or even make a big deal out of it if Sunny said he didn't want to go out with him.
Maybe distance himself for a while and not be as physical with Sunny.
Then there would be Sunny's reaction, because Sunny was probably right about him being uncomfortable with Oz being around after this if they didn't end up together, which would cause strain between everyone since the two were in the same class with most of their friends together.
Mirio blinked when his phone started ringing and he checked the number and his stomach flipped when he saw Oz's contact on his phone, gulping before he answered it with a slightly shaky "Hey Oz."
"Damn... Did I misread things that bad Stripper?" Oz asked sounding dejected.
"What? No! Just, Sunny doesn't really know how he feels about you." Mirio quickly corrected waving his other hand as if to dissuade the notion.
"Like 'I never knew I liked guys' sort of thing? Or 'I never saw you that way' thing?" Oz questioned a bit less dejected.
"Um, neither? He's worried he only wants to go out with you because of the mall attack, transference you know?" Mirio answered hoping that Oz would understand what he meant.
"Oh, that sucks... Jiki doing, ok?" Oz inquired after a few moments and Mirio sighed.
"He's doing as good as he can considering." Mirio confessed, rubbing the back of his neck and he heard Oz sigh on the other end.
"Fuck, I'm sorry Stripper. I didn't mean for him to ducktail like this, just didn't want Jiki and I to end up dancing around each other like a pair of idiots." Oz apologized.
"I know you didn't," Mirio assured, clearly hearing how much the pinkette was kicking himself for this over the phone "I didn't know about the transference thing before Sunny told me a few hours ago, I'm sure we can work everything out though." Mirio added, getting a grunt from Oz in return.
"Right, I guess this ain't that crappy... so you want me to avoid Jiki for a while? I could fake being sick too if that helps." Oz offered, greatly surprising Mirio and making him choke on the air.
"What? No, no. You don't have to go that far, especially not with the festival so close." Mirio said back and Oz sighed again.
"But the festival's going to be a problem, isn't it? We'll probably have to face each other during the one-on-ones or work with each other during the second round." Oz pointed out and Mirio's shoulders slumped as he realized that Oz was right.
"Yeah... that's true, damn." Mirio said and he covered his mouth.
Oz chuckled on the other end "You know that damn isn't a proper swear right Stripper?" Oz said and Miro couldn't help cracking a smile himself.
"So, about avoiding Sunny I think that should be the plan going forward until Sunny figures out what he wants. He'll probably figure it out by September since August will be our month long break." Mirio told his friend.
"Cool, yeah we can do that. And if things don't work out, we could just ask to switch classes, so Jiki doesn't have to deal with seeing me." Oz replied, again shocking Mirio.
"Oz, I don't think that'll-" Mirio tried to protest but Oz interrupted.
"We both know Jiki would die of embarrassment if he didn't want to date me after this and it would be easier on everybody if I moved instead of Jiki, I mean could you imagine Jiki lasting that long in 2-B?" Oz questioned.
Regrettably, Mirio found himself agreeing with Oz's points.
His classmates were much nicer to him now, but he wouldn't think about leaving them alone with Sunny for any period of time.
"Candy body or not I have some thick skin Stripper, so those idiots won't faze me with their kindergarten grade insults. Besides, I'm a teachers kid now so I probably won't get in that much trouble if I kick their butts for talking crap." Oz said and Mirio laughed a bit awkwardly.
Mainly because he was half certain that Oz wasn't joking about beating them up, he's seen Oz glare at people over saying things about them in the cafeteria before and the pinkette would always wrap his hair around Sunny during those times.
"Somehow I don't think that Master-Sensei Sano-Sensei would let you get away with that... " Mirio said back with a sweat-drop.
"Probably not... want me to talk to the others about what's going on? Wouldn't want Hado to try and lock me and Jiki in a closet to 'sort ourselves out'." Oz inquired.
"Oof, yeah... Nejire-Chan would do something like that, but no I can handle that, thanks for being so understanding about this Oz." Mirio told him slightly relieved.
"It's no problem, Stripper. My feelings aren't that strong yet and I wanted to see how Jiki felt about going out before they got out of control, I ain't going to be butt hurt over rejection like the little hell spawn." Oz replied trying to play it off.
Mirio's eyes fell to the ground "Still, thanks for not pushing on this and trying to keep Sunny's feelings in mind." Mirio insisted almost imagining the eye roll from Oz.
"Like I'd be an ass to Jiki over the shit I started Stripper, I'd defend myself more but I gotta call my mom and aunt." Oz said and Mirio gave him a quick goodbye before Oz hung up.
Miro took a deep breath then began to open up his individual chats with his friends to privately explain what was going to be happening the next couple of weeks.
He really hoped that things wouldn't go that badly, regardless of what Sunny's real feelings were or what happened after Sunny figured them out.