A/N: Oof, sorry for this late post. There's only FOUR days left and I'm going to try to cram as much as I can before the month is over! Thankfully, I have a very free weekend so I can dedicate it to writing. Also, thank you all for your lovely support! It means so much to me. Please enjoy~

Day 20: No One Saw You but Me

Sasuke would never admit it, but he enjoyed watching Hinata. Whether she was sitting in class, walking away from him, or drawing late in the night – he always found that he would find his eyes on her.

What really made him notice her though, was the way she observed others. She would sit quietly in class, close to the back. She had a few pens to take notes with – not even bothering to use the laptop he knew she had in her bag. Instead, her eyes wandered delicately. She would stare at her classmates, as though they were something to be discovered.

Hinata had a skill of watching and not being discovered. She paid attention in her own way and kept her thoughts tucked deeply in her own mind. He watched as she carefully took care of the journal she kept close to her – she was not one to make the same mistake twice. Not after years of working to improve and become better. Years of consequence have trained her to become someone who was quiet, graceful, and commendable.

Sasuke would watch her, an itch in his hand. He had the strange desire to keep her close to him. To keep her tucked in a pocket and not let anyone see her.

He noticed how his mood grew grim when she was around her friends – Kiba and Shino. He remembered how his stomach churned when they made her smile.

"Sasuke-san?" Hinata asked, surprised to see him in the café she was sitting at. Her friends looked up at him, puzzled to see why Sasuke Uchiha was there with them.

"I came here to work on schoolwork. Can I see here?" he asked, indicating the seat next to her.

"O-of course! Let me just move some of my stuff out of the way," Hinata answered, gathering a few of her things and placing them to her other side.

Shino sipped at his iced tea, a blank expression over his face. It was hard to gauge what he was thinking with the shades he wore.

Kiba was definitely more aware of what was going on. If Kiba was a dog, he would have been snarling at Sasuke. Sasuke avoided his gaze and took his laptop out of his bag.

Shino and Kiba continued their conversation with Hinata, not paying too much mind to Sasuke. He actually found himself comfortably working on work with the rest of them chatting. The three of them had a different dynamic compared to him, Naruto, and Sakura. Sasuke admitted that he was easy to wound up around those two. Sakura and Naruto were both charismatic and loud, always drawing attention towards them, which Sasuke had a hard time keeping up with.

Hinata, Shino, and Kiba found balance with one another. Kiba talked of his day – animated. Hinata supported him with the appropriate reactions and Shino would make a comment every so often. Sasuke could tell the three were close, even if you could not see it at first. They all respected one another and understand each other's boundaries.

It was also interesting for Sasuke to get a closer of Hinata's inspiration.

"My sister left me on clean up duty to go on a date this week and I swear I'm going to get her back next week!" Kiba exclaimed, before licking off the whip cream of his drink.

"With who? You only know how to interact with dogs," Shino commented.

"I know how to talk to girls too!"

"Then go talk to that girl over there," Shino pointed out, "She's been looking at you for the last ten minutes."

"Are you sure she's not debating whether you're going to blow up the place?" Kiba muttered, poking his straw around his cup.

"W-well, I think she was looking at you," Hinata chimed in. "I've noticed her looking directly at your bag. It seems she has the same music band patch."

"Oh!" Kiba lightened up, trusting Hinata's comments over Shino's. Sasuke watched as Hinata smiled and found himself looking away before it was contagious. "I'm going to ask her if she knows them then. I'll prove to you," Kiba poked Shino's arm, "That I'm great at talking to girls."

Sasuke scoffed as Kiba walked away and Hinata giggled next to him.

"I'll be right back," she said, "Can you watch my stuff?"

Sasuke nodded and she walked toward the bathroom.

"Do you like her?" Shino asked, setting his empty drink down.

"Excuse me?" Sasuke responded, surprised the guy in front of him even talked to him.

"Do you like Hinata?"

"I—"

"I've noticed how you look at her," Shino commented. "She's a great person."

"I never said she wasn't," Sasuke's voice cut like a sharp knife. Shino raised an eyebrow and shook his cup of ice.

"What are your intentions with her?" Shino asked, his voice softer than before.

"I'm just her partner in class," Sasuke told him. Yet, he felt as though it wasn't exactly the truth. "I intern at her family's office. I'm a friend of a friend. Nothing more, nothing less."

Shino tilted his head, as though he could read Sasuke's mind. "You'll hurt her if that's how you view your connection to her."

Sasuke swallowed. He closed his laptop and threw it in his bag. "I have something to do now. Watch over her stuff."

Shino nodded, shaking his empty cup once again.

Sasuke looked to see Kiba laughing with the girl and was surprised to see Hinata next to them. She laughed along with them. Her eyes caught Sasuke's gaze and he simply lifted his hand up to wave goodbye to her.

His chest clenched when she smiled back at him, as though maybe she could see straight through him.