ᴄʜᴇʀʀʏ ᴇʏᴇꜱ ~ ᴜꜱʜɪᴛᴇɴ

18. I Do(n't)

"Bub! I'm home!" Tendou called out. Ushijima hurried into the entryway and got Tendou into the kitchen. "What're you doing?"

"When is your birthday?"

"May twentieth?"

"Okay thank you. Can I have help with this?" Ushijima pointed to the counter where his laptop was on and there were multiple things having to do with some sort of sweet on the counter. "I'm bad at baking."

"Sure!"

"Thank you."

Tendou nodded. He washed his hands and looked at the lap top. He chuckled. "Cherry pie."

"Mhmm."

"Let's see here..." He scrolled, reading the recipe. "Can you get me the flour?"

Ushijima took it out and soon enough Tendou had taught him to make the crust for the pie, loving his little happy stims as the smell of the pie was more evident from it baking. 

"You're so cute. Gah." Tendou held Ushijima's face in both hands. 

Ushijima smiled. "My whole apartment smells like you."

Tendou's cheeks flushed slightly. "That's why you wanted to make it?"

"That and I love cherry pie."

"Aw. You're so cute..."

Ushijima shook his head. 

Tendou just smiled at him. 

"Oh I had a question."

"Shoot."

"Shoot?"

"Oh it's like saying go ahead." Tendou explained.

"Oh."

"Mhmm. Go ahead and ask."

Ushijima tensed. "I just realized it was an awkward question. To you at least."

"Trust me, I can deal with awkward. You're perfectly fine Bub."

Ushijima sighed. "Okay."

Tendou stared. He could see Ushijima was nervous. An odd thing to be nervous about was asking a question. But it was okay. Tendou just held his face. Ushijima looked back into his eyes for a moment. 

"Do you like me?"

"Oh that  awkward question."

"E-eh..."

"Don't be nervous! It's okay to ask things like that!"

"Well. I just wanted to ask because I like you and it's hard to tell if you like me. I'm terrible at social cues." 

"No you don't..."

"I just told you I did though?"

"No, you don't." Tendou let go. "Every time someone likes me they end up seeing I'm clingy. People don't like me. You don't like me."

"Yes I do. I like you a lot." Ushijima grabbed his hands. He pulled him back towards himself. "You don't need to worry about being clingy because clingy people are my favorite people. As long as they're not draining."

"I am though." Tendou tried to pull away. 

Ushijima tightened his grip. "Stop pulling away."

"I can't help it! Okay?! You can't!"

"Why not though...? You're so kind to me... and you help me. So much. You're my favorite person to be with because of how kind you are and if you don't like me then that's okay. I was just asking."