I Will Win, I Promise

A Promise

The training camp so far had been exhausting. Kenma didn't like wearing himself out and absolutely hated conditioning drills. Even more than that, he hated getting into the groove of the game then having to stop when he had just gotten into it.

Kenma found himself restless trying to go to sleep. The training exhausted him but the mental energy hadn't died out as fast as his physical energy had. Usually when this happens, he could just play games on a console or on his phone but he wasn't at home and he didn't want to disturb his team mates.

Kenma was bored. He stared at the ceiling, listening to the slow breathing from his teammates and occasional snores from Yamamoto. He was trying not to toss and turn because he knew it would only make him feel worse, but sitting still doing nothing didn't feel great either. He heard his phone buzz and reached over his head to check it immediately.

The brightness of his screen burned his eyes for a moment before he was able to read the screen.

"Are you awake?" It was a text from Shoyo. Kenma let out a small sigh of relief before carefully getting up and leaving the room so the light from his phone wouldn't disturb his team mates.

"Yeah. Can't sleep." He sent back.

"Me too! Want to take a walk?" Kenma smiled a little bit and quickly shot back a text that said "Sure. I'll meet you at your room." before heading towards Karasuno's room.

He had met Shoyo just a few months ago but the boy had made a lasting impression. He had wild ginger hair and the kind of determination that could leave any lesser player in the dust. Or even better, motivate a player to get better, if only to keep up.

Kenma had found him profoundly interesting. He wouldn't admit it when Kuroo pointed it out, but having Hinata as a rival did make him more motivated. During that first practice match, he had watched Shoyo transform into a beautiful monster right before his eyes. He watched his jet black wings spread the length of the court, taking up his whole view. He saw sunshine burst from his soul as he jumped to spike. That ball was made for him.

Since then Kenma had been infatuated with the boy. Kuroo teased him about it and while he denied it every time, he wallowed in the thought of Shoyo frequently. He was very suddenly sucked into his orbit and the distance had only worsened that feeling. He wanted him, somehow, some way.

He wanted him as a rival, or rather had been immediately given the title of rival by Hinata himself. He wanted him as a friend. They had been texting ever since the first practice match, and had only gotten closer at the last training camp when Hinata showed up late. He wanted him as his, and that thought disturbed him.

He had sat with the idea of a crush for a long time after the first training camp. It still didn't feel right to him. In his 17 years on this earth he'd had approximately two crushes and neither had felt like this.

He was close friends with Hinata. But it was different from how he was close with Kuroo. With Hinata the friendship was full of a bizarre kind of closeness Kenma didn't know how to define. He didn't think he cared to define it.

He kept all this in the back of his mind as he walked to meet Hinata. Usually the world felt so dull. But this camp, while exhausting, had things feeling brighter than usual. The thought that Shoyo brought new color to the world around him had crossed his mind many times, but then he would push the thought away.

He saw Shoyo at the end of the hall, facing away from him and he stopped for a second, feeling his heart freeze in his chest before calling out to him.

"Hey Shoyo."

"Kenma!" Hinata said, almost loud enough to be yelling. He ran over to Kenma and fell into step beside him.

"Be quiet, people are sleeping." Kenma said quietly, redirecting his path to the stairs.