sнαттεя мε, ιgηιтε нεя

Chapter: 10

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- - - Hinata - - -

I jumped high, bringing my knees to my chest and narrowly missing the sword that was swung at my torso. I brought my wooden sword down as I fell and hit Tendou in the arm. The impact made him stumble and as soon as I landed on my feet I sprinted forward and grabbed his arm as I kicked the back of his knee.

He fell back grunted. "Damn you, your freaking jumps are crazy. How the heck do you even do that?" His voice was disgruntled and I smiled triumphantly.

Soft clapping sounded behind us and I flashed my smile to Kenma and gave her a thumbs up. My eyes dipped lower and I quickly turned back to Tendou before she could see my expression.

It had been six months since Tetsurou and Tooru went back to Aobajohsai. Tooru often visited; usually to see Iwaizumi who refused to leave Kenma. Sometimes he brought up Tetsurou, but that stopped about two months ago.

When Ushijima initially returned empty-handed I was furious, but he told me that Tetsurou didn't want to even hear Kenma's name. Whatever reason he has for leaving, I was getting more and more upset with him as the days passed. I wanted to ride to Aobajohsai, but Kenma didn't want to deal with it and since she stayed with us at Shiratorizawa, she would notice if I disappeared for a day.

I continued to spar with Tendou until I did a half-turn and saw Kenma trying to get up from her seated position on the grass. "We'll continue tomorrow Satori."

I didn't wait for his response before running over to grab her hands and help her up.

She asked me. "I could've probably done that on my own, Shouyou.

I shrugged and we walked back towards the palace doors. "I don't mind."

As the days progressed and another week passed, I found myself more and more worried about Kenma. We visited Nekoma every other week, but she mainly just stayed in her room at Shiratorizawa. I know she prefers being on her own, rather than with people she doesn't feel comfortable with, but in her condition, I wish she would walk around the palace or eat more. Everything came to a screeching halt though, three weeks later when I ran into Ushijima escorting a visiting royal through the palace.

I stared at Tetsurou for so long that he started to fidget and avoided my eyes.

"What. The. Fuck." He flinched and Ushijima sighed.

"Shouyou, he wishes to ask to court Kenma."

My mouth dropped open and I couldn't even fathom how I was supposed to formulate words to respond to the idiocy of that statement. Somehow though, my mouth knew what I wanted to express.

"You freaking imbecile. Are you serious?!" Ushijima saw the look on my face and I saw his eyes widen, but I was faster than him, so he couldn't stop me as I brought back my foot and kicked Tetsurou as hard as I could in the shin.

He yelped and dropped to his other knee and wrapped his arms around the shin that I kicked. "Hinata! What the heck!"

"You...you... you asshole! I can't believe the nerve you have to come here after leaving Kenma and then refusing to see her when Ushijima went to bring you back!"

He slowly stood and furrowed his eyebrows at me. "I was trying to give Kenma what she wanted... I know she didn't want to marry anyone and I thought if I gave her space for a few weeks, maybe a couple of months, and then asked to court her she would be more open to it... but then I remembered how brave she was with Daishou and how much she has grown in a week and I was scared that she would resent me if I forced her into a marriage... but I am here to officially ask for her hand in courtship."