Work Text:
'I'm leaving for a week.'
Oikawa didn't lift his head, scribbling something frantically in his notebook. The mess around them was atrocious, but it was a normal occurrence on a night-before an exam days in Oikawa's room( well, same went for Iwaizumi, when he had to pull a night-over.) He was sitting on the floor, notebooks, pens, pencils and books all scattered around them, his face mirrored utter focus, tongue poking out his mouth.
He hummed something unrecognizable in acknowledgment at Hajime’s statement. Iwaizumi shifted. 'Are you gonna be okay?' he asked, and it was mostly the change in his voice, as it sounded slightly softer than usual, that made Oikawa finally look at him.
'What? Yeah, I think I can manage this homework, Iwa-chan.'
Iwaizumi rolled his eyes and huffed. 'I said I am leaving for a week, are you gonna be okay?'
Oikawa turned to him, eyebrows raised, wide smile on his face. 'Why wouldn't I be? I know my way to school, and I think I can manage practice without you kicking my butt.'
Iwaizumi frowned, but he came back to the maths exercises he was helping to solve.
He wondered how long it will take Oikawa to falter.
Turned out it took a slightly shorter amount of time than Iwaizumi had expected, and that Oikawa Tooru might not posses the skills of comprehension Iwaizumi expected of him to have, or he simply didn't freaking listen to Iwaizumi at all. The thing was, after they had finished the exam, Iwaizumi presented their teacher an official excuse from the dean, and left the classroom. His parents were to come and pick him up after he had taken the hardest, maths exam before they went to take the trip to his cousin's wedding. Which was sensible, since he'd already had to take at least three retakes after he was back, and it worried him a big deal. As he left the classroom, he tried not to look over, but it was as if Oikawa's face started to blind him with a feeling of confused betrayal and he felt it piercing holes at the back of his neck. So he glanced back, damn it, just to be confronted with a very intense stare of brown eyes He felt some of the classmates looking between them and whispering something to each other, so he chose to stop hovering in the doorway and left quickly.
It took Oikawa less than ten minutes to send two text messages, quickly followed by a third one, consisting of a variation of distressed and offended emojis, and the last one inquiring What about the practice today?
Iwaizumi didn't grace it with any replies, just gazed in the distance until his parents picked him up, then deleted the messages(apart from the emoji one, because one of the faces seriously looked like Oikawa). After getting another message as he got into the car, he decided to switch off his phone for now.
30 new messages.
It took Oikawa two hours after practice had ended, and Iwaizumi got 30 messages. After 11 consecutive buzzes, Iwaizumi's parents stopped teasing him about him having a girlfriend, and just asked him how Oikawa was doing and if there was anything new at school.
Iwaizumi growled and buried his head in his arms.
The next day, he started thinking he had made a mistake somewhere along the way.
The first message he got on his first day of absence he could laugh at. It was one of their classmates, politely demanding to know when Iwaizumi was coming back, since he wanted to ask him to return a book he was tricked into borrowing Oikawa a month ago, and he needed it to prepare for an exam. That the guy didn't want to interact with Oikawa had been left unsaid, but clearly visible in a distressed feeling of the mail. Or rather, in the heated reply of gratitude when Iwaizumi promised to give him the book back as soon as he returned.
He left his phone at the hotel, since his parents told him they were to have an official dinner with the groom's closest family and he didn't need a buzzing phone distracting everyone.
His cousin's parents refused to show up( Iwaizumi didn't know the details, but there was some messalians involved from what he understood), and his cousin always had treated his parents as her foster parents anyway, so she didn't cry much over her biological family's lack of acceptance, and just invited his mom and dad instead.
The dinner was nice, groom's family didn't blink twice at the change in theirs son’s in laws, and everyone seemed to get along pretty well. At some point, it turned out groom's older sister used to play volleyball in her high school team, so Hajime gladly exchanged experiences. His mom smiled at him warmly from across the table at this show of respect and adult behaviour, as if she didn't think he was capable of having a conversation with a girl that wasn't his family. Just because he didn't bring girls home every day, didn't mean he didn’t know how to talk to them.
"So, what do you do, Iwaizumi-kun? I heard something about volleyball, but that might just be my crazy sister and her volleyball stories." laughed the groom, and Hajime shook his head. Before he had a chance to answer, though, his mother was already supplying the man with an answer. "Our Hajime doesn't really have time for many hobbies." His father, engrossed in a work related conversation with the groom's father, added absent mindedly "Yes, he's busy with their volleyball team."
Hajime's mother smiled sweetly and petted her husband hand. "That's really not what I meant."
"Oh, I see! Dividing your attention between beloved sport and a girlfriend? That's tough." the groom winked. His sister laughed "I never quite managed to figure that out. Practices were too absorbing to maintain a boyfriend. High school boys were so demanding!"
Iwaizumi-san smiled sweetly at them, nodding, but Hajime felt he was blushing, because his mother would never let it go, would she.
That one time they passed out after some gruesome practice in their junior year of high school, and she found them cuddling asleep on Hajime's bed. Or the other time when he left after midnight to go to Oikawa's place before a game, because- Oikawa before an important game was a threat to himself.
And Iwaizumi was glad as ever that he was urged to leave his phone in the room, because he was more than sure Oikawa would had probably chosen this exact moment to send him two messages in a row, or something. And it would only prove his mother's point, in her opinion.
And yes, his mother was right about what she had told the groom. He would be lying if he said he wasn't sacrificing a lot of his time on this relationship, but what everyone thought for him to be a huge burden, wasn't that much of a burden, really. They knew each other too long, and as much as there was a lot of annoyance involved, there was an equal amount of satisfaction and laughter, and this looking after Oikawa business came like breathing to him.
Not that Hajime would admit that to Oikawa's face, ever. He would probably get even more full of himself than he already was, and he would explode, from his ego becoming so enormous his body couldn't handle it.
The funny thing was, Hajime suspected everyone thought that he was babysitting Oikawa Tooru because Oikawa was too impossible to interact with. And as much as Hajime didn't want any accidents to happen within their team, so a kick here or there were necessary, because there was a limit to how long people would endure certain behaviours. Didn't matter if the said person was the best strategist and a great captain. They were all only a bunch of guys, after all, and nerves could snap. Even if most of the time the guys let Oikawa's ridiculous behaviour left unnoticed, Iwaizumi didn't want to take any chances. But he didn't really do it for other people.
Oikawa Tooru burnt bright, but if he were left alone to his own devices, he would probably burn out, and Hajime would rather burn out first that let that happen.
When they came back from the dinner and a stroll around the town that followed, and he finally had a chance to check his phone, he stared at it in disbelief.
Some pictures from the practice and two identical selfies Oikawa had sent him two hours ago was the kind of thing he had expected.
What he didn't expect was a message from Oikawa's nephew, asking him if he knew where Tooru was.
He gaped at the message for good five minutes, before he managed to sent back "I'm not in the town, what happened?"
Hajime didn't know why, but his stomach clenched with some bad feeling, that is until over an hour later he got a response "He was just running late!" and Hajime had to suppress a strong urge to throw his phone at the wall.
Few hours after that, rereading the exchange with Takeru, he decided that he had no ground to be worried about that dumbass, and it was probably Oikawa's idea of a prank to play on him. That he either was late on purpose to prompt the question, or bribed Takeru to send Hajime that stupid message. Because even if he was an airheaded idiot, there was a thing he was always serious about(apart from his looks) and it was volleyball. And Oikawa knew that Hajime knew that, so he probably just wanted to rile him up, and he managed to, even from the distance.
And even if Hajime had felt sort of bad for not replying to any messages Oikawa had sent him( even though they were ridiculously stupid), now he made up his mind. He frowned at his phone and shoved it into his pocket.
Two can play at this game. If Oikawa was playing dirty like that, he would just ignore him whatsoever. No big deal.
His mother peeked at him from above her book. "Trouble in paradise?"
Hajime groaned and hurried to change into pajamas and go to sleep.
The next two days proved that ignoring Oikawa Tooru for more than twenty four hours was, in fact, a task impossible.
There were a couple of messages from him waiting for Hajime after he came back from the breakfast. As he waited for his parents to finish preparing for the day in the town for another meeting to let the close family get to know each other some more, he had a quick scroll through his inbox. All the messages were utterly like Oikawa, exclamation marks, telling him about mundane, petty stuff, boasting about how many girls smiled at him today. Then one short message caught his eye, mostly because it was so short, and had no interpunction, and it just said iwachan why arent you replying. Hajime felt a pinch in his heart because he made a mistake of reading it in Oikawa's most vulnerable voice, but then he groaned when that text was followed by something that looked like ass, what the hell?
His mom chose this moment to lean over his shoulder to reach for something, and she was flashed with the image on his phone.
She stopped mid motion, then retreated and patted Hajime on the head.
"Honey, you know we all adore and always welcome Tooru-kun, but please restrain from taking your phone with you today."
Iwaizumi stared at the phone in disbelief. Not able to answer his mother, he just nodded his head.
The next message that he weakly opened, revealed a picture of Oikawa sticking out his tongue at him and taking a selfie in the mirror, fully clothed, pointing at his arm, wordlessly explaining that the previous picture was just a close up on his bent arm.
Was he ten?
They were out for the whole day, and came back late in the evening. The day was so full of activities and attractions he barely had a chance to think that he hadn't talked to Oikawa in what was almost two days and a half. Which was, to his knowledge, probably the longest time they hadn't interacted since they were eight.
But there was something amiss, and he felt again that tightening in his chest even when he was eating at the best diner in town or during an exciting boat tour of the city. He was also engrossed in a conversation with groom's sister, Miki-san. He quickly grew to like her. She was really funny in a rather twisted way, and gave him some on point volleyball advice he couldn't wait but to share with Oikawa, already thinking if they would apply them to their team trainings.
The day after that was the wedding, and everyone was already acting crazy and as in trance, even if it was still the eve of the event. Iwaizumi wasn't sure how he felt about the weddings, but since his cousin looked so happy, he figured it was cool that she could finally create a family of her own, which was awesome, considering her parents, and everything.
The thing that baffled him was that since the groom was half-European, they decided to have a traditional, Japanese wedding, but with European reception. Hajime went to some weddings in his life, with the side of his mother's family being rather numerous and all, so he knew what Japanese receptions looked like. They were nothing on what he had read on the European weddings, that were apparently quite crazy.
The last message he got from Oikawa before he went to sleep that day was an all capslocked IWA-CHAN followed by a frowny face.
On the big day, Iwaizumi had no time to check his phone from the moment he woke up, since apparently, even though from what he knew it took ages to organise a wedding, everything was falling apart and all hell broke loose. His mother forgot some super important ornament to her dress, his father ripped his shirt, his cousin's hairdressing appointment was for some reason canceled and she didn't have any saloon to go to at the last minute. So he ended up being sent to five different places in the city to check this or that, to buy this and that, and he swore he didn't blink twice and it was already well late into the afternoon and they were in the car, driving to the shrine.
"That was one crazy day." he said, when he finally caught a breath on the back seat. His mom checked her hair in the mirror, and gasped. "I forgot to tell you! Tooru-kun's mom texted me, I will have to tell you something, but maybe after the wedding."
Iwaizumi's heart stopped for a second, but then he thought Oikawa was probably being a drama queen again, or that he snatched his mom's phone to pester Iwaizumi-san since her son wasn’t replying.
He wouldn't think his mom to tell him that Oikawa-san called her to ask if Hajime-kun knew if anything happened at school, since Oikawa came home, didn't even touch his food, and barricaded himself in the room.
Upon learning that, Hajime set his mouth in a tight line and asked his mom to borrow her phone.
He went out of the reach of anyone’s ears and sat on the stairs, away from the lights of the shrine. The first call ended with Oikawa's stupid voice mail, and Hajime felt something clench at his throat, because if anything happened, and if Oikawa didn't answer his goddamn phone, he was too far away to do anything. He couldn't just leave his house as usual in these situations, and walk few steps and knock on the door that was as familiar to him as his own, or if it was too late, to just sneak into Oikawa's bedroom as they used to do when they were smaller, to disregard their parents' curfew in order to toss some more or play on their gameboys.
As Hajime almost never panicked(after many bruises and cutting words he finally learnt how to keep his head cooler, it was a must if one was friends with fire), this time, probably mostly because of the distance that separated them at this moment, he felt he had trouble breathing with each second Oikawa was not answering his stupid phone.
Then finally, he heard the click indicating a phone being picked up, and he took a deep breath, bracing himself for the worst.
"Iwa-chan? Finally. I was so bored..." at that, Iwaizumi stilled. That voice wasn't sad. It was a typical, whiny meow.
"What the hell." was all Iwaizumi managed to spit out. Oikawa laughed at the other end of the line. "You weren't replying to any messages, so I figured if your mom told you my mom contacted her..." he could see Oikawa's shit-eating grin.
"What the hell," Hajime knew he wasn't very imaginative right now, but he was glad he was sitting, because he would probably collapse on his ass. "Iwa-chan, if I wanted such an one-sided conversation, I would've talked to Takeru's furby."
"It's your furby, stop lying that it's your nephew's." Iwaizumi deadpanned, still too shocked to be properly angry that Oikawa thought it was funny to scare him like that. "You're such a brat. I can't believe you. I don't know why I'm even talking to you."
"But I'm bored!" said Oikawa in an annoying voice, and Iwaizumi moved the mobile from his ear, staring at in for a minute. He could hear Oikawa was complaining on the other side, and he just disconnected the call without saying another word.
Oikawa called him back seconds later, and Iwaizumi answered after the fourth signal.
"Tell me about the wedding!" Oikawa said joyfully, as if he didn't just emotionally harass Iwaizumi into thinking he was going through a mental breakdown, just because he wanted Hajime to call him as he was having a really horrible case of ennui.
Iwaizumi silently admitted defeat, because it turned out, ignoring Oikawa Tooru was way harder than interacting with him daily.
"It was alright, haven't you been to a wedding before?" he sighed, and shifted his position on the cool stone. "I'm more curious about the reception, though. I wonder if it will be like something from the movies." Oikawa laughed at that, and reminded them the last movie they had watched together with a wedding in it. It was during Oikawa's mom's sacred movie evening, that Hajime was first invited to join when he became friends with Oikawa, and that he never since skipped. Hajime smiled at some point, remembering the funny scenes. "Yeah, exactly. I will snap some photos if crazy stuff starts to happen."
"Just don't drink too much! I won't be there to pull back your hair when you're puking your insides out!"
Iwaizumi groaned at the memory. "My hair is short, so there wouldn't be the need. And my memory of that evening is hazy, but I'm pretty sure you weren't sober enough to help me with anything. To be accurate, you were laying on the floor next to the toilet I was puking into."
Oikawa murmured something inaudible, then said, louder so Iwaizumi could understand him "Well, at least I managed to open the door unlike some other drunkards!"
iwaizumi snickered. "Fair enough."
There was a short pause on Oikawa's side, and his voice sounded oddly detached and flat when he asked "So, any fun people you've met?"
Iwaizumi gave it a second of consideration, then a face came to his mind.
"Actually, there is! Miki-san, the groom's sister. You would probably like her, and she would probably find you... funny, too. She gave me some solid advice on volleyball, I will tell you when I'm back. She used to play volleyball in high school, but she's graduated now, second year of university. She also told me loads about uni volleyball teams, that was interesting, you know. Not to read it from a university pamphlet, but to hear it from an actual person who witnessed everything."
Oikawa sounded off when he breathed out an "Oh, I see."
Iwaizumi frowned. "Are you okay?"
Oikawa laughed his laugh number 5, the one Iwaizumi hated the most because it reeked of fake. "Yeah, Iwa-chan! Listen, I gotta go, mom is calling me downstairs, I can smell dinner and I could eat a horse!"
With that, the call disconnected, and Iwaizumi stared at the mobile again. Why was Oikawa such a tool?
The reception turned out to be way more fun than he had thought it would be, in a good way. He rolled his eyes, but he snapped some pictures for Oikawa as promised, and then he got some messages prompting him to send him pictures of certain stuff, like this or that dish, his mom's dress, his cousin's husband, and then for Iwa-chan to send him a selfie with Miki-san. Iwaizumi grimaced at the last text, but Miki-san saw it over his arm(he needs to start reading his goddamn text when he’s sure he was alone) and laughed, asking him why his friend would send such an odd request.
"He's really popular at school, and always repeats I'm not popular with girls, so he probably wants a proof that I'm talking to a girl at all." Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, as he snapped his phone close. Miki-san smiled at him. "As I told you, I feel it so much. All my friends were the same. It's just hard to have a working relationship when you are involved into something as demanding as a sport team, and if you want to succeed at it, too. I had some friends who were on the team but did it half-assed. I quickly got rid of them." she beamed, then ruffled his hair. "If you want to, I can give you a peck on the cheek, and let’s take a picture of that. Then you should tell him to reply you with the face he makes when he sees you got kissed by a university girl!"
Iwaizumi laughed at the idea, but he refused the offer politely. Miki-san started to tickle him, asking if he was too shy and explaining that she wasn't really interested in guys at all, upon observing a tint of red on his neck. He excused himself and escaped hurriedly after the tickling didn't cease. He hated being tickled, and it wasn't as if he could kick her as he did to Oikawa.
It was 2 am, and he felt his phone vibrate. He didn't have to check who was calling him. He excused himself from the table(not that anyone would had noticed, all too drunk or busy to really care. Only Miki-san winked at him and then went back to flirt with a very flustered, but enjoying it waitress)
He picked up the phone even before he left for the building, so he thought he missed a reply to his hello as he was closing the heavy door beside him,
"Oikawa?" the silence that answered him was strangely heavy, and way too familiar to Hajime's liking. 'Oikawa, what the hell."
Finally, he heard some audible breathing, and "Hi."
Iwaizumi knitted his eyebrows. "Shouldn't you be asleep? You know there's school tomorrow for you, right?"
He could imagine Oikawa nodding on the other side of the line, but he didn't say anything. Iwaizumi took a deep breath. "What's wrong?"
"You like me, right, Iwa-chan?"
Hajime was taken aback. "Oikawa, what are you blabbing about? What do you think?"
(And then it was like deja vu, or, or a war flashback. Oikawa refusing to look at him when he had said he couldn't meet after school because a girl wanted to talk to him in a cafe about tutoring. He met with her twice, as in a date, then he ended up postponing few dates because of Oikawa or practice, and then she called him to announce "I don't like it. I'm a small fry in comparison to your other relationship, and you will never invest in me emotionally like that, I know it."
Back then he thought she was talking about volleyball, and Oikawa was jealous that for once, he wasn't the desirable one for a girl.
He knew better now.)
"Did you have more fun with Miki-san today?" at that, Hajime groaned. "Yeah, she's nice, the only person close to my age at this gathering. " he knew he was avoiding the answer to an unasked question, so he massaged his temple and took a deep breath."Listen up, you were my friend for the past decade, and I still hang out with you after all the crap you did, so just-"
Oikawa's breath hitched as he interrupted in the middle of Iwaizumi's rant. "When are you coming back?"
Iwaizumi took another calming breath and closed his eyes, focusing entirely only on Oikawa's voice. He learnt the trick some time ago, it helped to differentiate between Oikawa pretending to be upset and really being upset. "I told you. In three days, in the evening."
Hajime could swear he heard Oikawa opening his mouth for few times, weighting on different answers. Finally, all he said was a quiet "Okay."
Iwaizumi breathed shallowly, unsure what to say now, and he just heard Oikawa from more distance, he was probably already moving the phone away from his ear "Don't drink too much and have fun, Iwa-chan!"
Hajime stayed outside for an hour longer, because he hated feeling helpless, and he was helpless now. Because there were too many miles and he just had heard that undertone in Oikawa's voice that made his blood freeze.
He couldn't sleep for half of the night, and all that he repeated all over in his head was i shouldn't i shouldn't i can't do this i can't do this. But in the end, he ended up doing everything he was trying to talk himself out of. Which was, in the right order:
-lie to his parents that he had a surprise, super important test he had to take tomorrow, so he needed to go back
-refuse their money for the ticket, which made them even more suspicious,
-walk to the station at ungodly hour because there was only one direct train that he was able to afford
- swear a lot at Oikawa in his head
- buy some unhealthy food that he swore to himself he will stop eating, but there was nothing open apart from some shitty McDonald's
- actually take that train
- not sleep for the whole trip
- think too much
He was mostly angry at Oikawa for being a five year old, but even more he was angry at himself for being so weak when it came to that idiot. But he long ago surpassed the point where he tried denying he cared for Oikawa more than it was sane. All the hours he spent silently by his side just to keep him company at his weakest were proof enough, same as all the time Oikawa said something so mocking he wondered why he even liked him, but there was no lying when he said he enjoyed that company, sought it, and needed it probably as much as Oikawa needed him.
Thus he ended up on a stupid train, lying to his parents, spending his last pocket money, just because Oikawa Tooru sounded sad on the phone.
+++
Oikawa was laying in his bed, staring at the ceiling. He considered calling Iwa-chan, he really wanted to, but for some reason all his messages showed undelivered, and when he tried calling him after practice, there was no reception.
So he ended up tossing to himself, resting, and staring at all the stains on the walls.
He never thought he would take Iwa-chan's presence for granted, or that he would miss him that much to actually start going crazy a bit. But he did.
The amount of times he caught himself talking to someone who wasn't next to him, and all the attention he drew to himself because of that! He was more than sure that he probably lost one or two fans when that one day he was noticed laughing to himself, because he forgot Iwa-chan wasn't there to snicker at the situation, too. And while two guys laughing at something seemed cool, one guy laughing to himself was the saddest view ever.
It was weirdly emptier around him, too, when Iwa-chan wasn't there. And it wasn't just that Iwa-chan's presence was big. It was comforting, but not that big. But it was always there, by his side. But the thing he noticed was that people avoided him when Iwaizumi wasn't next to him(apart from his teammates, they talked to him even outside from practice, but he wasn't blind to their emphatic stares).
He startled when he heard a buzz. Did his mom forget her keys? But it was too early for her to come back already. When the buzz didn't stop, he sighed and left the coziness of his bed to get the door. Maybe it was some anonymous post from his fans that would cheer him up.
He opened the door and took a step back, as if he had seen a ghost.
'What.'
No, he wasn't mistaken! He couldn't mistake that hard stare and spiky hair for anything in the world. Oikawa Tooru, focus.
Putting into use all his analytical skills, Oikawa came to the conclusion that his eyes couldn't be mistaken, and Iwaizumi was indeed standing in front of him.
'Iwa-chan?' he asked in a way smaller voice than he intended.
'I came back earlier, the second day of the wedding sucked. Weather was horrible..' Iwaizumi stated, not looking at Oikawa. Neither of them pointed out how stupid that excuse was.
But after a second, Iwa-chan grabbed him and brought him closer for a tight hug, huffing you're such an idiot, jesus into the thin skin framing his clavicles. Oikawa didn't respond to that, but he squinted and laughed out 'Admit it, Iwa-chan, they threw you out because you drank too much, and now your whole side of family is banned from such events!'
Iwaizumi looked at him blankly, and when Oikawa noticed Iwa-chan started to roll up his sleeves he immediately knew what was up.
He started running back, inside his house, shooting for to the stairs, even before Iwaizumi moved. He laughed freely, feeling something in his chest unclench at the familiarity of all of it and it was breath taking.
Few seconds later, he really had lost his breath, not metaphorically, but literally, when Iwaizumi headbutted him so hard he saw stars before his eyes, and they both fell to the ground from the impact. His stomach hurt as much as he was happy to see Iwa-chan again.
But the stars he saw from the headbutt were nothing on the freaking galaxies that appeared in front of his eyes, when Iwa-chan leant over him on the ground, pinning him to the floor as he kissed it all better.
(Later on, when they were sitting next to each other on Oikawa's bed, leant against the wall, shoulders pressed while Oikawa showed him all the notes from the classes Iwa-chan had missed, Iwaizumi's phone buzzed.
Oikawa eyed it warily, and reached for it, because it was his Iwa-chan time, and no Miki-san( who inappropriately touched Iwa-chan, his mom showed him that scandalous picture Iwa-chan's mom took of them at the reception!), had any right to disturb it.
Iwaizumi slapped his hands away, muttering "It's just my mom, idiot".
He gave the text a quick read, and Oikawa observed with a surprise how Iwaizumi groaned, buried his head in his arms, rested over bent knees, and threw the phone away from him as if it burnt his hands.
Oikawa tilted his head to read the message, and laughed as his eyes took in the smugly written 'Hajime, next time maybe just invite Tooru-kun to the wedding too".
He bumped Iwa-chan's shoulders with his, his face stretched into a real smile, and he flooded Iwa-chan's field of vision as he leant closer and said that well, he wouldn't mind that at all.
He looks good in black, after all.)