Silently Pining

Admiring

Kenma smiled while watching you. He remained silent as he observed your every move.

You both were unaware that the others were following you, watching everything you two did.

You smile, looking over at the setter beside you. "What do you usually like to do on the weekends, Kenma?"

His eyes widened, not expecting you to ask about his personal life. "Um... well, I usually just stay at home and play video games in my room."

"By yourself?"

He nods. "Yes."

You frown slightly. "That must get pretty lonely."

"Not really. I prefer to be by myself usually. And Kuroo tends to come over a lot, he's done it since we were kids."

"That's nice."

Kenma shrugs. "He's usually trying to pull me out of my room to go do stuff."

You chuckle. "That makes sense. Did you not want to come hang out with everyone?"

"Not at first."

"What made you change your mind?"

"Well...." He hesitated to answer, feeling flustered. "They said you'd be here, so I thought it would be fine to join for a bit."

You tipped your head to one side. "Why was I the factor that made you change your mind?"

"Because I like you." Kenma took a deep breath. "You're a nice person, and I feel like you're someone that's good to be around. Even though we didn't know each other, you helped me out. I'm happy about that and don't mind be around you for a while."

Your eyes widened. "That's sweet. I don't know that much about you. So it's nice to hear you talk like this."

He blushed a bit. "I'm not usually one for conversations like these."

"Well, I'm glad you're making the effort to talk to me. It's nice."

The others grinned while watching. They felt progress was being made. Their hopes of their plans working going up a bit.

Kenma just silently stared into your eyes. He couldn't find any words to say in the moment. He was just amazed that you actually enjoyed talking to him.

You smile warmly at the boy. "What? You speechless now? Not used to someone enjoying your presence and a conversation with you?"

"Not at all. I mean, everyone around me typically wants me to speak more, but they never really seem to genuinely enjoy it. I'm useful for volleyball strategies, but tend to feel less than adequate when it comes to normal conversations."

"I think you don't have enough confidence in yourself. I can tell everyone likes having you around. And they, for the most part, respect your boundaries just so you'd stay around them for a bit. Hell, they even try finding ways of bribing you to come along with them. Don't you think that means something?"

Kenma looks away. "I guess they do try to get me to spend a lot of time with them, even outside of volleyball."

"See. They enjoy having you around. You're a better person than you think you are."

The setter smiles, looking at you once more. "I think you're right. Thanks, Y/n-sama."

You giggle. "You don't have call me sama. Keiji only does it since he's formal and has been calling me that our whole lives."

"Are we even close enough to drop formalities?"

You give him a kind smile. "I want to try being friendly enough with you that you're comfortable enough with just referring to me by my name."

"Yes!"

You two turn, spotting the others trying to hide in some bushes, others were trying to use the trees to hide. You both raised one of your brows at the others, silently questioning their behavior.

"Bokuto!" Kuroo pushes the loud owl out of sight.

You just stare at them. "What are you all doing?"

Yukie ran up to you, wrapping her arms around you like normal. "We were watching to see progress between you and Kenma."

Kaori glares at the girl. "Yukie!"

"Why would you guys watch us for that?"

"Cuz, you two are getting closer to each other so easily!" Yukie beamed, not caring that she was ruining the plan to set you and Kenma up.

The others walk over, Kaori grabbing Yukie off of you. The guys gave the loud manager a glare, each blaming her for not following the plan as they had discussed.

You sigh, looking at everyone. "Well, since we're all here, we might as well hang out as a large group."

Yukie beamed, breaking free from Kaori's grasp and running back to hug you. "Yay! Y/n wants me around!"

Kaori mumbled grumpily to the guys. "And here we see Yukie herself not only destroy our plans, but steal Y/n from Kenma."

Konoha chuckled quietly. "I guess there's nothing we can do. Yukie is gonna try to be attached to Y/n as much as she can."

Kuroo sighed, slowly giving up. "I guess that's it for this plan. Next time we try something, Yukie can't be around."

Akaashi looked at the tall captain. "You think?"

Bokuto deflated. "I thought she was on board with the plan."

Kaori narrowed her eyes. "It's Yukie. She may be on board with a plan, but she still wants to do her own thing."

Kenma just stared at you, somehow walking with Yukie's arms wrapped tightly around you. He wondered how you were still able to breathe with her clinging to you like that. But it also impressed him how well you were able to deal with it.

"I wonder if she'd let me do that with her one day. It must be nice to be able to hug Y/n-sama. She's probably warm. I wanna hug her now...."

Yukie kept her arms wrapped around you, leaning closer to whisper in your ear. "How do you feel about Kenma?"

"Why do you ask?"

"Curiosity."

You sigh. "I don't know. I barely know him, but he seems to be a good guy."

Yukie leaned her head on your shoulder. "Could you see yourself in a relationship with him? Like, ever?"

You look at her from the corner of your eye. "Maybe. I'd have to get to know him better first. And if I do plan to get into a relationship, I wanna take it slower and make it mean something. I don't want to risk another Terushima incident."

Yukie smiled, nuzzling against your face. "Go for it, Y/n. I think you have a good chance at having something good with Kenma. He's the kind that'll love you forever and won't hurt you."

"Why are you so focused on this?"