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Tendou pretended to not notice Ushijima fidgeting next to him. For the past few days, Ushijima had been slightly restless, in the almost unnoticeable Ushijima-patented method of avoiding something uncomfortable: stretching without needing to, frowning more (and a serious frown, not one of Ushijima's thoughtful ones), clasping his hands together to hide fidgeting, and staring at something. Usually at whatever it was that was bothering him, if it was a person or thing.
Ushijima was actually really easy to read, with experience from time. He was a terrible liar, and he could never hide his thought-driven actions, like the direction of his eyes. Tendou pitied him.
"So, Wakatoshi. You look like you have a lot on your mind. What is it?" Tendou leaned in for the answer.
Ushijima prefaced himself with an unintentional breath. "There's nothing important."
"Ah, okay. You're a good friend, and I trust you. It's not like you'd lie for no reason." Tendou fought a grin. He failed, and he resorted to snickering into his shoulder.
For the next several hours, Tendou continued to fail to pull any answers from Ushijima. He admitted defeat and went on to achieve guaranteed victory on a video game instead, with Ushijima watching the TV screen.
Out of the corner of his eye, Tendou saw Ushijima holding his phone uselessly in his hands. Tendou let the game default to a menu after a battle. "Something interesting on your phone?"
"No."
Tendou suspected that his answer was too fast, and he zoomed in to snatch the phone. He held it straight out with his arms away, and with an elbow in Ushijima's chest to struggle against his strong attempts to take it back.
"Hey, this is Kenjirou's name. You have his number?" Tendou asked.
"Yes, but that's irrelevant."
"I see, I'll see." Tendou held his arm out more and proceeded to scroll.
Ushijima grabbed his elbow. "Give it back."
"Oh uh, eesh, here." Tendou dropped it on instinct. He scooted back to his controller and picked it up. "Okay, I've got it now. You don't have to explain."
"I don't?"
"Nope." Tendou grinned again, at his vague response. Ushijima sat quietly, and Tendou liked to think he was stewing and spinning around in his own head.
After the results of lazy research to the extent of snooping, watching Ushijima talk to people, and going on intuition and hunches, Tendou was both surprised and not surprised. He couldn't break it and tell it apart. Either way, Ushijima and Shirabu were both in an awkward phase of a place between friendship and something else, and Tendou told everyone from team-bound obligation.
"You shouldn't've told us," Yamagata said. "What do you even want us to do about it?"
Semi sharply elbowed Yamagata.
"Good question. They're having a date tonight. It's our duty to check on them." Tendou crossed his arms with a small head sway to the side.
"You mean spy," Reon said.
"Well if you insist, then we should have spy equipment." Tendou snapped his hands like claws.
"You're both making this so much worse," Kawanishi complained. "Tendou's worse than a genie in a court of law. Speak carefully with him."
"A genie?" Goshiki asked.
"One wrong word and your wish's ruined."
"Wouldn't that be a fairy?"
"Fairies are too nice to do that," Yamagata argued.
"You're all wrong. You get wishes from shooting stars." Tendou grabbed Yamagata's shoulder. "Be serious. We have an operation to plan."
"So you need a flashlight and sandwiches," Yamagata said.
Tendou closed his eyes. "Please."
They followed Ushijima and Shirabu to a small restaurant tucked into a street of shops and other restaurants. Ushijima visited it every week for its hayashi rice, and Tendou sometimes tagged along. Ushijima's willingness to go alone didn't amount to much when he enjoyed eating alone anyway, but if Ushijima didn't go alone then that meant Tendou went with him, and Tendou had never seen Shirabu come with them. The thought of Ushijima introducing it to Shirabu made Tendou smile.
"We can't hear a thing. What's the point of this?" Kawanishi asked. Everyone was at the table sitting up from their chairs, failing to hide themselves well.
Tendou narrowed his eyes at Kawanishi and wrinkled his nose as he pulled out binoculars.
"Really, Tendou?"
"You mock, but admit it, deep down you wish you had one." Tendou raised it to his eyes.
"You still can't hear anything."
"Then go inside and sit behind them," Tendou instructed.
"No."
"Tsutomu, you go."
Goshiki shifted in his chair. "What?"
"There's a chance they might've already seen us, you know," Kawanishi went on. "We're sitting in plain sight at a table across the street."
Tendou reached over and zipped Kawanishi's jacket up to his face until his eyes were hidden. Kawanishi fell still. Tendou unzipped it again.
"Don't go lazy." Tendou twisted him around to a better view, and Kawanishi snapped and griped over the pain.
"I'll go," Semi cut in. "Tsutomu, come on."
"Turn on your phone so we can hear them," Tendou suggested.
Aside from Tendou, Semi was the only one who bothered to put on a long overcoat to fit the mood. Tendou was tempted to snicker and make fun of him.
Next to Tendou, Reon refused to speak at all.
Yamagata sat back in his chair, slouching a bit. "At least we can see both their faces."
"Yeah, I'm grateful for that." Tendou removed a hand from his binoculars to sip from his soda, slurping noisily.
Ushijima and Shirabu both fidgeted and made useless movements with their hands and by shifting in their seats. Tendou had expected that out of Ushijima, but he was thrilled that Shirabu showed weakness, too. He regretted not bringing a capable camera that could zoom in that far away.
Reon, very quietly, leaned forward to speak. "What's happening?"
"What do you mean, what's happening? Aren't you looking?" Tendou asked.
"...I forgot my contacts."
Tendou, Kawanishi, and Yamagata all laughed.
"You should've said something! Anyway, Eita and Tsutomu should be calling soon, so at least we'll all be able to hear."
Tendou sat glued in his chair to keep watching. Ushijima knocked over his drink. Shirabu took a napkin to clean it up, and Ushijima turned red. Tendou could imagine Ushijima's words in a rush to apologize. He snorted, but he felt the impulse to howl at loud at them.
Semi's call came through to Tendou's phone. Tendou answered. "You've got Satori."
"Here." Semi's voice faded. Goshiki's voice sounded in the background, but that faded, too, as a faint rustling signaled movement.
Ushijima's and Shirabu's voices materialized.
"I'm not worried," Shirabu said. "We have each other's numbers. I'll talk to you every day."
"What'd they say, what'd they say?" Tendou asked in a whisper. He dragged his hands across the table in claws. "I wish I knew what they said before that."
"Thanks. I appreciate it." Ushijima cleared his throat. "If there's ever anything you want, you should tell me."
"Uh. That's not necessary."
"Wakatoshi...you should've asked me for advice doing this," Tendou whispered.
"Can you stop talking? I can barely hear them," Kawanishi hissed.
"What's your favorite food, Shirabu?"
Tendou dragged his hands across his face. Ushijima used to criticize Shirabu for eating whitebait.
"Call me Kenjirou," Shirabu said.
Ushijima struggled to say his name, hesitating. Kawanishi shoved his hands into his eyes.
"I can't take this. They're terrible."
"We have to keep listening and watching, Taichi." Tendou wrenched his hands away. "Even if it hurts."
"Wakatoshi," Shirabu said.
"I understand." Ushijima's voice was still slow and tentative. "But if that's the case, I think Tendou should stop calling you by your given name."
Kawanishi snorted. "Ha, ha."
"Yeah, Tendou'll probably get annoying with that. I'll tell him no for you too."
Kawanishi continued to hold himself back from full-blown laughter, but Yamagata didn't care. He laughed into his arms with his head on the table. Reon laughed next to him.
"What if the whole night's just shit talk about you, Tendou?" Kawanishi asked. "Is it still not painful enough?"
Tendou gritted his teeth. "No."
"The moon looks lovely tonight," Ushijima remarked. "Not as much--"
Shirabu turned to look up at the sky. "I don't see the moon? It's cloudy."
Tendou cringed. "Wakatoshi, are you okay??"
"O-oh, I didn't notice," Ushijima said.
They heard Shirabu eat through the phone, and then a thump. In the window, Shirabu fell out of his chair. Shirabu cursed.
"I think he's dead now," Kawanishi said.
"That reminds me. What's Tsutomu doing? How can he stand this?" Yamagata asked.
"Yeah... I don't see him." Kawanishi shrugged. "Maybe he ran."
A few minutes later, Goshiki hurried out of the restaurant with a paper bag in his hands. He dropped it in front of Tendou on the table, and then bowed to rest his hands on the table edge with heavy breaths.
Tendou opened it and extended a small piece of bread. "Melon bread?" he offered.
"Did you really ask for food?" Reon asked.
"Well, they probably need to order something to keep their table. Might as well make it dessert." Tendou opened the bag and shared it to everyone. "Take something too, Tsutomu."
"Thanks."
"What just happened?" Kawanishi pointed at the window.
Ushijima held a piece of food between his chopsticks and raised it to Shirabu's mouth. They heard Shirabu choke in surprise.
"Romantic," Yamagata said.
Goshiki rushed back to sit with Semi.
"This is the best date I've ever been on," Kawanishi said. Tendou elbowed him.
The bill came to Ushijima and Shirabu's table a few minutes later, and Semi fumbled to flag down someone for his own bill.
"When they come outside, run," Tendou said.
"I'm surprised you don't want to take pictures," Reon muttered.
"Courtroom? What did I just say earlier about Tendou?" Kawanishi asked.
Tendou perked up. "Since you reminded me, I don't need to be on the phone anymore. Bye, Eita-kun." Tendou pressed the end call button, and then reoriented his phone to the camera.
"If Shirabu ever finds out about this, he's going to do something like make a goat kiss you in your sleep and then take photos," Kawanishi said.
"He'd never."
"Shirabu?" Yamagata and Reon asked.
"...I'll send the photos to you guys so you'll all be guilty too, then." Tendou ducked to hide as Ushijima and Shirabu exited, and he zoomed in on them.
"When do we run?" Yamagata asked.
"Don't run."
"Alright."
After Shirabu and Ushijima passed them and walked out of the danger zone of catching them spying, Shirabu tripped. Tendou raised his fist.
"I got it on video!" he said in an excited whisper.
Once Semi and Goshiki reconvened with them, they disbanded, and Tendou walked briskly to meet Ushijima in the dorm building.
"How was your night, Wakatoshi?"
Ushijima jumped. "Tendou?"
"Yes it's Tendou." Tendou tightened his lips to hide his guilty grin. "So how'd it go? Was your night fun?"
Ushijima relaxed and nodded with a slight crease of a smile in his mouth. "I did. It was nice."
Tendou's expression faded when he saw Ushijima's honest happiness. He reconsidered the planned teasing and decided to drop it. He rushed in to give Ushijima a hug.
"I'm so happy! Two of my closest friends!"
Ushijima stared at his head blankly, but he let it go and ruffled Tendou's hair.