You had already predicted it would, but art class definitely became a time of solace to you. It gave you more motivation to get through your school work so you could go down there and continue on your giant painting that you were given the opportunity to do with all the supplies you could dream of.
Tendou had actually meant it when he agreed to be a partner to you, at least while both of you were in the class. On day one he had crossed the room after about a half hour of work time and gazed upon your work. "Oh, yeah. That's cool," he said as he hovered over you. "Open to minor suggestions?"
You looked up at him with a smile. It was nice that he asked before giving any comments, unsolicited advice always made you a little bit angry no matter what the intentions were. "Go for it," you answered as you set down your paints and leaned back.
He then gave his critiques, and all of them were truly helpful. They were all things you had been contemplating the composition of and he gave you the answer you had been looking for. You smiled as you watched his hand point out the last thing you had worries about. It was as if he knew exactly what you were looking to change.
"Thank you," you said as he backed away, putting his hands into his pockets. "That actually really helps me."
He gave you a nod and his normal smirk. "Of course."
On day two, both of you painted in mostly silence. It was a comfortable silence, not awkward in any way even though you would have pinned him as someone extremely talkative from your first impression of him. Instead, he was often singing little songs under his breathe. They were often a made-up melody about what he was doing at that moment.
One of his songs he included you in it and you turned to him with a shocked little smile as he continued to sing his theme song for you and your painting. "She blends. Oh, (y/n), there she goes with that brush. Oh, yeah-"
The songs seldom had words that actually rhymed, but they were still extremely entertaining. The ones with you as the subject even had you blushing at times.
At the end of class he said goodbye with a "Ciao," as he walked through the door, his jacket slung over his shoulder. Yesterday he said goodbye with "Au revoir." Maybe he was simply going to switch languages every day.
On day three he dragged you over to his work. He pushed you down onto his stool as he stood behind you, watching you scan the details of his painting.
That wasn't the first time you had caught a glimpse of his project, but this was the first time you got to look at it up close. Looking at him, you would have never pinned him as someone in photo-realism, but that's exactly what you were looking at. A perfect landscape of evergreen trees and mountains was before you.
"It's amazing," you said simply as you looked.
He gave a small laugh. "You think? This was just from my mind."
"Really?" you asked as you looked at it closer. "It doesn't look much like anything I've seen around here."
"I think I spend so long gazing at pictures of other landscapes they're just implanted in my mind," he answered. You looked back at him to see him shrug as he continued. "The world is just fascinating to me."
You stood up from his seat, making your way back to your own to clean up your supplies. It was getting close to the time that the bell would ring for lunch, so it was time that both of you started to put your things away. "If you're so fascinated by the world, I'm shocked you haven't been asking me more things."
"I figured you were already being bombarded with weird questions from weird people," he answered as he lifted his painting from his easel to bring it back to the corner that had been designated for you two to put your things. "You probably didn't need anymore."
There had been maybe only two people the entire time that asked you anything and both times it ended after one question. You figured no one was interested in your home. "No, not really," you said. "People haven't been asking me much, and I don't think it would be weird of you to do so."
He seemed to perk up at that as he walked back across the room to grab your canvas. You tried to stop him, saying you could carry it yourself but he waved you off and brought your painting over to sit with his. "So, can I ask you anything?" he asked.
"We'll see what your anything entails."
He started to ask questions that you found fully mundane, but he seemed to be enjoying all of them. As the bell rang out, he followed by your side. Usually he would leave the classroom a couple minutes early-- which your teacher never seemed to mind-- but today he stuck right by your side as he was far too invested in the questions.
You started to walk towards the cafeteria, but you knew you had no true intentions of going in there. You went to it at night when many less kids were around, right before it would close, but going in during the day didn't feel like an option. The thought of going in and trying to guess your way around a more concentrated group of the same students that didn't care enough to even show you your way to your classroom made you want to throw up.
Before you could get much closer, you stopped in your steps. Tendou followed suit as he listened to your last answer to his last strange question. That's when you said, "I need to run to the bathroom before lunch, I'll see you around."
"Mhm, yep," he said with a hum. "I'll definitely see you there."
You watched as he walked away, caught off guard by his tone. He said it almost as if he knew you wouldn't be stepping foot in there, like it was a joke he was already let in on, but you had never said anything to him. Your conversation usually ended far before your art class period even did, but he already seemed to know more about you than you had let on before.
Wrapping your hand around the strap of your bag, you walked down the hall past groups and groups of students to go to where you usually did for lunch time.
The dining hall was the main source of food for you, but for now you had enough in the mini fridge back at your dorm that you filled at night to keep you filled during the day, too.
Not many kids made their way through their dorms during the day, the most you would ever pass in them at all were a couple people here and there, but these hours they would look especially barren. You wondered how many kids from this school actually used the dorms altogether, but you were never out in the halls long enough to get a true idea of numbers.
It was only a short walk and with as long of a lunch period as you were given, you wondered how more students didn't utilize this time to go back to their own dorms. It felt safer here, a space that felt the least bit like home.
As you walked, there was someone watching you from afar that you were unaware of. The windows in the cafeteria allowed for a perfect view of the path that you took back to your dorm. He hadn't meant to see you walking that path every day, but Tendou so often found himself looking out the window next to the table that he sat at that he couldn't help but spot the girl that looked so different from the many that bustled around him.
He watched as you walked into the dorm hall and set his head on his hand as he contemplated. Shiratorizawa wasn't the most welcoming school, but he didn't want to see you walk alone so often.
Part of him wondered why he felt that way at all. How could he let himself get so attached to a stranger so quickly?
Yet, he knew the answer and he also knew that you weren't quite just a stranger. Even though you sometimes scoffed at him, he couldn't help but light up every time you laughed at his antics in any way. He had never cared about the approval of others on what he did, but suddenly he cared more about making someone else smile than bothering them for a simple reaction.
He turned back to his friend that was sitting in front of him, scrolling on his phone. "Oi, Semi."
"What is it?" Semi responded, not looking up.
"How long do exchange students here usually stay?"
Semi looked up and shrugged as he shoved some food in his mouth. "I dunno, probably like a semester."
Tendou glanced back to the path you had just walked. "Good to know," he said.
Semi raised an eyebrow. "Why?"
"No reason in particular," he said as he tapped the table with his hands before turning to his other friend who was eating quietly. No way in hell he would ever let someone from his team find out what his inner dialogue currently consisted of. "Now, how about that upcoming game, Ushi? Got any feelings?"
edited (2/15/22)