They were sitting on the floor of Yui's room leaning over the notes in front of them. Since both were relatively fast readers, they had already finished the book for their report within the first week. It only made sense to get the presentation part over with as well.

Keiji's eyes crinkled again in amusement as he watched Yui tuck her wayward locks behind her ears for about the hundredth time. They kept falling out of place and each time her face would morph into a little pout of frustration. He found it quite entertaining. After her last attempt he let out the tiniest of chuckles.

Yui's eyes instantly looked at him and the butterflies that were dormant in her stomach exploded. Their close proximity to each other was already enough to put her on edge. She could literally feel the heat radiating off of his body. The heat was only amplified by the blush that was now gracing her face and neck.

"Sorry" she mumbled quickly removing her hand from her hair. She should probably get a hairband and pull her hair out of her face, but Keiji's laugh was like a drug to her veins and she craved it. She couldn't bring herself to stop the thing that had seemed to amuse him so much.

"Why?" Keiji queried. An amused twinkle in his eyes.

"Um…because?" she looked at him confused.

He chuckled at her again as he raised his arms slightly over his head stretching to ease the cramps that had been forming as they sat there. Her golden eyes hungrily glided over his body as he did.

"Want to take a break?" he asked casually.

"Oh… yeah sure. I'll go get us some snacks" she replied quickly standing up.

As she left the air stirred leaving a scent of sugar cookies in its wake. Keiji never understood how she could always smell like freshly baked cookies. She was everything sweet and good in the world. Kotaro called her his baby owl, but Keiji thought that she was more like a baby bunnie. Or a kitten. Or a puppy. Or anything else that was tiny, fluffy and pure.

He really couldn't have asked for a better friend. The pressure of always trying to be perfect sometimes left him feeling empty and drained. In those moments he tended to isolate himself. The Bokuto cousins though had pushed through those moments of isolation and brought a warmth to him. They were like the sun on his rainy days.

He stood up to ease the cramps in his legs. He had heard his phone go off a little while earlier, but had been too engrossed in their project that he ignored it. He figured right now would be a good time to check it since they were taking a break anyways.

"So I found some muffins and some soda" Yui said cheerfully as she came back into the room. She stopped for a moment to just appreciate the sight in front of her.

Keiji was standing with his phone. A genuinely bright smile on his face. She watched as he quickly typed out a message.

"Who are you texting? If it's Kotaro, tell him we're busy and he can bug you later" she said as she set down her foraging spoils.

"Oh it's just a girl I know" he said indifferently with just a hint of happiness.

Yui looked at him closely. Her heart clenching at his words. She was an expert in all things Keiji and had noticed him smiling a lot more recently when he texted. She had assumed it was Kotaro, but what if it wasn't? What if it was this girl who was making him smile so much? She felt something bubbling to the surface and her large golden eyes took on a panicked look. Keiji didn't notice.

"…Do I know this girl?" she asked trying to sound casual as she averted her eyes slightly from him. She was still watching him from her peripheral vision though.

"No. She goes to Karasuno. So about these muffins?" He set his phone back in his bag and joined her on the floor.

"R-right" she fumbled over the word handing him a muffin. She let her hair fall back over her face to hide the uncertainty in her eyes.

They finished dividing up the presentation. They would each work on a section such as character, symbolism, etc and then circle back in a couple of days to compare. There was no more mention of the mysterious Karasuno girl and Yui was too afraid to ever bring it up again.

Yui couldn't help paying even more attention to Keiji than normal the rest of the week. He seemed to be happier and lighter. Each time he texted on his phone and smiled, she felt a pang of fear run through her body. What if he was texting that girl again? Keiji was never one to openly talk about things to begin with and she wasn't one to pry. She wasn't even sure she wanted to know the answer, so she remained quiet watching from the sidelines.

It was true. Keiji was feeling happier among other things. Kurozaki Toka, the girl from Karasuno, had awoken something in him that he had never really given much thought to until recently. She was beautiful and intelligent. Something about her had grabbed his attention and it wasn't letting go. Every text he got sent a bubble of excitement through his nerves. The phone calls were even better. He wasn't sure he had ever heard such a wonderful sound before. Her voice was like music to his deprived soul.

It wasn't enough though. He felt a longing in his body to see her. To feel her. When he thought about her, his mind would filter images of her playing volleyball. Probably because volleyball was so engrained in his life. The memories were beautiful. She was everything that volleyball should be.

Keiji was in the locker room pulling a shirt over his muscular chest when the idea hit him. Karasuno's boys' volleyball was pretty good and there had been talk about having a practice match with them anyways. Maybe they could have a practice match, but just add an extra person such as a certain brunette with mocha brown eyes. That way he could kill two birds with one stone.

He glanced over at the vice-captain. Might as well test the waters here before voicing the idea to the coach. He knew that it would cause some questioning, but now that the idea had floated into his brain, he couldn't get it out.

"Kimura-san I wanted to run something by you" Keiji started out casually.

"Sure what's up?" Kimura Hiroto the vice-captain with brown spiked hair turned to look at his captain.

Keiji explained his idea to the slightly shorter guy. After the vice-captain had finished questioning and teasing him, it was decided it wasn't that bad of an idea. Hiroto wanted to practice against Karasuno anyways and if Keiji wanted to flirt with a pretty girl, that was cool too. The guy seriously needed to get some action.

The rest of the team and the coach agreed. Although coach Yamiji did so with some reservations. He wasn't sure what the end goal was to invite a girl to the practice match, but Keiji had never done anything out of line and really what harm could it actually do?

"I'm really sad that I'm going to miss the practice match" Yui mumbled on the way home that night. She was oblivious to the fact that Keiji's phone girl would be there as it hadn't been mentioned at the end of practice. She was mostly sad because it would be the first practice match that year and she would be at a family event.

"Don't worry there will be more" Keiji said reassuringly as he ruffled her hair.

"Yeah, but Akaashi it's the first one this year and with Karasuno for that matter. I really wanted to see the chibi spiker that everyone keeps talking about" she pouted up at him.

"Well they are probably going to be invited to Golden Week, so just make sure not to have anything going on than" he said with a shrug. "Anyways since your parents are working late, do you want to come over for dinner?"

"Sure" Yui replied as happiness spread through her chest. The practice match forgotten. The anxiety about the girl from Karasuno was forgotten. Only Keiji remained in her thoughts now as she walked next to him content with the world.