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Walking past the little park around his neighborhood, Hajime suddenly heard it. It was a little kid crying. By the sound of his cries for help he estimated the kid to not be over six years old.
He wondered if the parents or guardians were around, when the cries started becoming louder and louder. The kid seemed to be yelling out a name, but the sobbing was drowning the sound out. Hajime looked around. Where was the crying coming from?
Then he suddenly noticed the small boy sitting to the side of the steps to the slide, with no one around him to take care of him.
His heart panged. The weakness he had for little kids started rising up. Hajime clicked his tongue: time to save a kid.
Hajime carefully approached the little boy. “Hey kid,” he started, trying not to startle the kid too much — however, that’s exactly what his sudden approach ignited.
As a reaction, the boy cried even louder and Hajime clenched his eyebrows together, in agony for the kid’s pain and tears. He shushed the kid softly, trying to approach him a little closer. “Hey kid,” he tried again, his voice a little gentler this time. “I’m not here to hurt you. I just want to help!” He stepped a little closer. “Could you tell me what’s wrong?”
From up close, he really didn’t seem a day over six — maybe even five. Hajime really felt for the boy. His tough facade faded around little kids.
“My name is Hajime,” he tried this time, sitting down on the grass instead of crouching on his knees.
The boy sniffed loudly this time, his small face scrunched together from the tears and his tiny fists clenched together. He waited for the kid to answer him this time around.
After a solid minute or two of Hajime just silently sitting next to the boy, who was still collecting his sniffs and blows and really trying his hardest to stop his crocodile tears from running over his cheeks, he softly replied to Hajime with a “Takeru.”
“Ohh,” Hajime said, nodding. “Takeru, huh. What a cool name.” He waited for Takeru to look at him. “Say, Takeru, how old are you?”
Slowly but surely the kid held up five fingers, which were wet with tears and snot. Hajime had to try his hardest not to laugh at the cute face Takeru was pulling. He produced a handkerchief from his backpack, and held it up in front of Takeru. “Can I clean your hands and face with this?”
It took Takeru another minute before finally completely trusting Hajime and placing his small hands into the handkerchief that Hajime had laid open on his own hands.
“Great job!” he complimented the boy. “Thank you.”
Takeru stared Hajime in his eyes while the latter was cleaning his hands. It didn’t seem like he was going to talk any time soon, though, Hajime thought. He was worried about how he was going to find Takeru’s parents…
Hajime cleaned his face next, and nearly laughed at the cute faces Takeru made. The cute pout made him think of his own parents when they told him he had to pout in order to have his face get completely cleaned as a little kid.
“You’re doing so well,” Hajime complimented him again, finishing up on his face. “Are you feeling a little better?” he asked, putting away the handkerchief.
Takeru nodded.
“Good boy,” he said again, patting his head. “Can you tell me why you were sad?”
Takeru inched in on Hajime a little, coming to pull on his sleeve softly.
“Lost,” his small voice whimpered out.
“You’re lost, huh,” Hajime repeated. “How unfortunate. Who did you come with?”
“My uncle,” he softly said, still clinging on to Hajime’s sleeve. His uncle? Why did he come with his uncle and why on Earth did his uncle leave his nephew alone? Hajime cursed at the irresponsible uncle.
“How stupid of your uncle,” he voiced his thoughts to Takeru, who, to his surprise, started laughing a little. Haha, even Hajime started to laugh; it was contagious. “Should we go look for you uncle?”
“He can rot,” came the very sudden reply. Hajime was taken aback.
“Rot?” he repeated. “How come?”
“He’s so stupid!”
Suddenly, Takeru was becoming very vocal, he started cursing his uncle even more and Hajime couldn’t hold it. He also couldn’t deny the level of funny that was behind this. A five year old kid ranting about his probably way older uncle like he was a piece of shit. He grinned at him and decided that Takeru was an amusing kid he could very much vibe with.
“You’re funny, Takeru. I like you.”
Takeru stopped to look at Hajime, furrowing his brows. “You’re weird too, uncle,” he said, straight through Hajime’s heart.
Uncle… He guessed he really looked like an old uncle to Takeru from his point of view.
“C’mon,” Hajime said, standing up and offering his hand to Takeru. “Let’s go look for your dummy uncle, then.”
Luckily, Takeru complied this time and gladly took his hand. He sighed, nearly making Hajime laugh again. How could a five year old be this hilarious? “I want to see my mom, though. But I guess uncle is fine now too.”
“Do you remember where you lost him?” Hajime tried asking this time.
Takeru seemed to start thinking, long and hard. “Hmmmmm,” he dragged, bringing his little finger to his lip. After a minute of thinking, Takeru said: “Not here.”
Hajime laughed, his shoulders shaking softly. “Oh, no!” he dramatically replied. “Now what?”
“I don’t really remember,” Takeru sheepishly confessed, scratching the arm that was holding Hajime’s hand.
“That’s too bad,” Hajime said. “Then there’s nothing to it but walk endlessly around, maybe even all the way to Kyoto.
“NO!” Takeru yelled out. “Not that far, uncle!!”
Hajime laughed. “Don’t worry, we won’t.” Only then it dawned on him how willingly Takeru was in taking his hand. For all Takeru knew, Hajime could have meant him harm. Shivers ran down his spine and he was glad to have found the boy.
They walked for another five minutes before Hajime heard a familiar name being called out.
“..ru-chan! Takeru-chan! Where are you?!”
Takeru seemed to recognize the voice, as his face perked up, his mouth pulling up in the biggest smile Hajime had ever seen.
“Tooru-nii!!!” he cried out, wringing his little fingers away from Hajime’s hands and running away from him.
Hajime was confused for a second. He couldn’t really make out the name that was called out, but the suffix ‘nii’ kind of threw him off. Then, he finally realized Takeru had run off without him, and started hurrying after him.
“Takeru, wait!” he called for him. What if it wasn’t his uncle at all, and instead of his uncle… it was a criminal?!
Hajime shook his head. No need for him to start panicking now. He just needed to catch up to Takeru and make sure the person he was calling for really was his uncle. He quickly saw the small boy, standing in front of his… uncle?
Oh.
So that’s why he looked like an uncle to Takeru.
Before Hajime could say anything, the… very young… uncle started speaking up.
“Takeru! Didn’t your mom teach you not to walk along with strangers?!” Apparently, the uncle had the same idea as he did.
While Takeru was busy coming up with excuses (and insults), Hajime stepped forward.
“Uh, hi? I—”
“Can I help you?” the uncle asked him, crossing his arms.
“Uncle!” Takeru yelled out before Hajime could say something in return. He walked over to Hajime and embraced his tiny arms around Hajime’s legs. “Thank you, uncle,” he suddenly said with a small voice Hajime hadn’t heard before.
He crouched down, reaching Takeru’s height, and patted his head. “No problem, kiddo,” he returned with a big smile. “Anything to help.”
“Did you help Takeru?” said the uncle, getting them out of their moment.
Again, before Hajime could speak, Takeru took the lead. “He did! This uncle was super nice to me — unlike some other uncle I know!”
Hajime had to try his hardest not to completely burst out in laughter at the shocked uncle’s face. “Hey, now, not so harsh on your uncle. He was probably worried sick about you.”
Takeru made a very cute, must he say, humph-sound. “Don’t care.”
Hajime laughed and stood up again. He held out his hand to the uncle, “Iwaizumi Hajime, by the way. I heard Takeru crying and just wanted to make sure he got back safely.”
The uncle hesitantly took his hand. “Oikawa Tooru.” Seeing him from up close Hajime estimated him to be around the same age as himself. Probably an older sister or brother with a kid this young.
“So, if Takeru is back and safe again I can happily take my leave,” Hajime said, feeling kind of in an awkward situation.
The uncle — Oikawa, apparently — wasn’t saying anything else and Takeru was hugging his legs again.
“Takeru,” Hajime said, starting to peel Takeru’s small hands off his body, “this uncle has to take his leave again…”
“NO!” Takeru exclaimed, slamming his little body around Hajime again, this time as tight as he could. “Stay!!!”
“I can’t do that, Takeru.” Hajime was feeling immensely awkward at this point. The uncle didn’t seem to take any action and it was getting on Hajime’s nerves.
And then he finally spoke. “Hey… is that a Tokyo University hoodie?”
Hajime glanced down. “Uh, yeah?”
“I go there too!”
He looked around from the corners of his eyes. The way the uncle had said that was so awkward that Hajime nearly felt he entered a prank show.
“O…kay?” Who didn’t around this neighborhood, he wanted to say, but he bit his tongue on it instead.
“What do you study?” the uncle said, sounding super interested all of a sudden.
“Uh, sports health.” Hajime hated the fact that he couldn’t stop sounding like the awkward was dripping off his voice — but apparently Oikawa couldn’t either.
“That’s so cool.”
The silence was cutting like a knife and Hajime wondered why he hadn’t told him about his own studies.
“What about you?”
Oikawa looked like he was taken by surprise. Flustered, he told Hajime he studied health sciences.
“Cool,” he replied, “so we’re actually on the same campus?” He could mentally slap himself. Why did he run his stupid mouth?
“Ye— yeah,” Oikawa said, sounding flustered still. His hands didn’t know where they needed to be situated; they were kind of flailing around his torso, up to his head, and back to his torso. “A— anyways, I got to, uh, get Takeru back to my sister.”
Hajime was confused by his actions, but didn’t question the stranger.
“C’mon, Takeru,” he said, the softness of his voice surprising Hajime. “Let’s go back to mommy, okay?”
The word ‘mommy’ really did miracles, as Takeru let go of Haijme’s legs immediately.
“Cool,” Oikawa said out of nowhere. It sounded flat. Hajime stared at him, it looked like he was about to say something else, but it also looked like he had chosen against saying it.
“Yup,” was all Hajime said in return.
“Guess I’ll see you around,” Oikawa said.
Around? Oh, right. At uni. “I guess,” Hajime said, unsure whether or not he even wanted to see him again.
Takeru started waving excitedly. “Uncle!!! Let’s meet again soon, okay!”
Hajime’s face cracked open into a wide smile. “Sure thing, Takeru.” How could he say no to that boy?
Oikawa softly smiled at him when they took off, quickly moving his hand up in an attempted wave. Hajime did the same.
“Well, that was awkward,” he breathed out when the two of them were finally out of his sight.
Hajime didn’t run into Oikawa Tooru at university.
One part of him was glad that they didn’t meet again, but another part of him was… not sad or disappointed but more curious to what else that young uncle had to offer.
(Another part of him just wanted to joke around with Takeru again, but that would sound weird if he voiced that thought to others.
But two weeks had passed and Hajime was nearly forgetting about the event (and also giving up hope) .
He was walking around campus after class with his friends when he thought back to meeting Takeru. He tried his hardest not to burst into laughter thinking about Takeru’s slander towards his uncle, when he suddenly got yanked to the side by one of his friends. That didn’t stop him from still running into the person his friends were apparently trying to avoid running into.
“Ow,” Hajime said on reflex, and rubbed his arm. He turned to his friends. “What the fuck?”
“Iwaizumi? Iwaizumi Hajime?”
Hajime looked up, confused. Who even called him by his full name except for the professors?
Oh. He did.
“Oikawa?”
“Wow, funny running into you?” It came out as a question, and even Oikawa seemed surprised by that as well.
Hajime turned to his friends. “You guys can go ahead! Don’t worry about me, I’ll make sure to show up in class on time.”
“Sure thing,” one of them said, and they walked away.
“Uh,” Hajime tried recollecting their conversation starter, “yeah, funny running into you.”
Before he knew it, Oikawa was guiding him to a bench, and sat down first. He was confused by the actions, but he wasn’t completely bothered by it.
“How have you been?” he asked, his voice soft, his knees together with his hands tucked underneath his thighs — which were pretty muscular, Hajime noticed. The white jeans he was wearing really articulated the lining of his muscles well and Hajime would stare at them for longer had he not been brought back to Earth by a shift in Oikawa’s movements.
“I, uh, have been well? I think?” He hated how much he had to try not to let his voice waver.
“You think?”
“I mean, it’s not like uni’s can be ridden like a swift wind, you know,” he joked.
Oikawa let out a nervous laugh. “Yeah. Same for me.”
It was silent between the two of them and Hajime scratched the space behind his ear.
“So, how’s Takeru doing?”
“Takeru has been asking for you.”
They stared at each other, before bursting into a laugh. They had spoken at the same time, both about Oikawa’s nephew.
“Let’s try that again,” Oikawa said, still laughing.
Hajime snickered too. “I was going to ask how your nephew’s doing, but I guess not really that fine if he wants to see me that badly.”
“Not true!” Oikawa blurted out, a little too fast. He seemed to realize that, too, as he shut his mouth, pressing his lips against each other. Hajime laughed again.
“How long were you actually looking for him?” Hajime asked, actually curious.
Oikawa scoffed. “Only for 10 minutes, but the kid likes to be a drama queen, so put two and two together.”
“I bet,” Hajime hummed in agreement.
“It’s funny though,” Oikawa said.
“What is?”
“Actually and quite literally running into you, here on campus.”
Hajime had to agree. Quite literally running into each other.
“I thought you had forgotten about me,” Oikawa suddenly said, taking Hajime off guard.
“What?”
“I… have seen you around campus two or three times already,” Oikawa confessed. Hajime couldn’t help but just stare at him.
“What?” he repeated.
Oikawa sighed, started to get irritated. Hajime could tell that clearly. He furrowed his brows.
“Nevermind,” Oikawa finally said. “I’ve got to get going to class. Um, see you around?” he asked Hajime, throwing the latter off.
Hajime blinked. “Uh, yeah. I guess.”
Neither of them said anything — Hajime didn’t know what to say and Oikawa seemed like he had something else to say, but didn’t.
“I— uh, tell Takeru I said ‘hi’, I guess,” Hajime said, scratching the back of his head, looking at the ground. Why on Earth was he feeling so awkward around Oikawa?
He looked back at Oikawa. The soft smile he had put on his face made Hajime’s throat clench — and he didn’t know why.
“Will do,” Oikawa said in the softest voice he had heard him speak in yet.
“O—” Hajime coughed. Fuck. “Okay. Well, gotta go too. See ya!”
“Bye.”
Hajime quickly turned around, but something about Oikawa’s small ‘bye’ didn’t sit right with him. He shook it off, though, the minute he saw what time it was. Shit, he was going to be late for class.
In the following weeks Iwaizumi had seen Oikawa around more often, but he didn’t feel like talking to him. It had felt awkward the last (and first, actually) time, so he just wrote it off as feeling too busy to talk to him.
But he couldn’t help but let that sting him somewhere in his chest.
To be really honest, Iwaizumi had been looking for Oikawa around campus now. They weren’t really in the same department, but their majors nearly resembled each other in a way.
Still, Hajime couldn’t confess out loud that he was actively looking for him.
It took Oikawa to start a new conversation between the two of them. It was two months after their first meeting. Oikawa ran up to him, yelling out his name from across campus. Onlookers were confused with the event happening in front of their eyes: with Oikawa’s running it nearly looked like they were long lost lovers reuniting after ages.
Hajime couldn’t contain a blush erupting after the thought.
Oikawa scolded him for being so far away from him that he had to run all the way over to him. Hajime only focused on the pout that Oikawa wore.
“Takeru misses you, you know?” Oikawa stated, not looking Hajime directly in his eyes, and fidgeting with his fingers. It brought Hajime back to his present self.
“Does he now?”
“He keeps saying “Uncle Iwa-chan needs to play with me again”,” Oikawa laughed at the memory.
“Uh, Iwa-chan?” He couldn’t remember telling Takeru his name, but his mind was probably playing mind tricks on himself. That had started happening since he met them.
“Haha, yeah. Isn’t it cute. Iwa-chan. Well, Takeru wants to play with you so bad.”
Hajime didn’t hear the rest and went numb for a second. Hearing Oikawa saying that nickname Takeru came up for him was having a different effect on him than when he imagined Takeru saying it.
“He honestly can’t stop talking about you. It’s so cute, just imagine a five year old bragging about playing with an uncle that isn’t even his real uncle.” Oikawa laughed at the thought, and Hajime couldn’t help but join him.
“That’s funny,” Hajime told Oikawa. “I just imagined him running around a house and calling my name over and over again.”
“That’s not just an imagination,” Oikawa blurted out. He wasn’t looking at Hajime, but the latter sure was.
“What?”
“You really need to come over.”
It was abrupt, sudden, and overwhelming.
“I—”
“Please,” Oikawa pleaded. “It has been so crazy. He doesn’t want to play with his other toys anymore and my sister is running out of ideas — so I just told her that I would make sure to bring you over,” Oikawa rushed saying.
Hajime didn’t know what to say. He was feeling some type of way but couldn’t really place it. The sound of Oikawa’s pleading voice was something he hadn’t heard before.
“Oh,” was the only thing he could mutter out.
“I mean!” Oikawa said, rushed. “You shouldn’t feel too much pressure into coming, of course. We can perfectly handle it ourselves, but—”
“Extra help from the one he’s calling for might actually help,” Hajime piped in.
Oikawa seemed to be surprised by his answer, Hajime noticed. But he must be imagining it as Oikawa quickly turned away from him. “Would be cool,” he said, not showing his face.
Hajime decided to ignore whatever feeling was rubbing on him and nodded. “Cool. What time and where?”
“I was thinking this Saturday, 3PM?”
“Works fine for me.” Hajime grabbed his phone from his pocket to write down the details in his calendar. “What’s the address?”
Oikawa told him his sister’s address and made sure Hajime had the correct one by leaning into his personal space a little bit more. Hajime didn’t mind.
They left, bidding each other a couple goodbyes — especially Oikawa, not forgetting to leave with a quick bow.
The rest of the days… Hajime counted them down until it was finally Saturday and he would see Oikawa— ahem, Takeru again.
Hajime couldn’t deny feeling a little giddy approaching Saturday.
“Oh, you’re here!” The wide smile of Takeru’s mom — Oikawa’s sister, Hajime remembered — made him blush. She really resembled Oikawa and, in a quick moment, Hajime could see that wide smile fit Oikawa’s face perfectly. He hadn’t seem him smile like that, but he didn’t mind the thought.
“Iwa-chaaan,” Takeru yelled from inside the living room. The door between their front door and the living room was closed, but Hajime could hear him perfectly. He laughed as the kid kept yelling.
“Sorry about that. Tooru made the mistake of spoiling that you were coming and he was even more excited,” Takeru’s mom told him as she let him in. He excused himself, laughing again, and he thought of how Tooru would have told Takeru he was coming.
Tooru.
Hm.
He walked through the door only to be attacked by the little boy in question, clenching his arms around his legs.
“IWA-CHAN.”
Hajime could honestly get used to this nickname Takeru gave him.
He hoisted the younger kid up in his arms and Takeru embraced him in a big bear hug. “I’m so glad you’re heeeeere.”
“Me too,” Hajime confessed. He walked around their big house, with Takeru still on his arm and telling him (directing him) where to go. They were headed towards their garden, Hajime figured. “Do you have anything special planned for us for today?” he asked him.
Takeru shook his head wildly. “Yeah!!”
“Awesome!” Hajime couldn’t actually believe he and this boy had a connection like this even though they just met. “Can you tell me? Or do you want to keep it a secret?”
Takeru shook his head. “I can tell you!” As he went to scream about the variety of activities he wanted to do with Hajime. They were laughing as they entered the garden — Hajime had been right.
But something sitting on the other side of the garden made him stop.
“Iwa-chan?”
“Takeru, I thought it was going to be the two of us,” he whispered. “What’s that person doing over here? Have you betrayed me?”
Takeru blew a raspberry through his lips. “He was not invited, but he’s the party pooper of the family. I never like hanging with him, that’s why you’re heeeere,” he sang.
Hajime laughed hard. “The party pooper?” He walked over to that edge of the garden, the person sitting there looking hurt by Takeru’s words. “Oh, hey, Oikawa.” He sent him a grin, feigning that he had just noticed him.
“Hey, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa mocked back.
Hajime’s heart did a little jump. Or did it? He couldn’t really tell. He swallowed loudly and instantly hated himself for it. He hoped that Oikawa didn’t hear any of that.
“You gotta call him Tooru, okay?” Takeru said, pointing his little finger into his chest.
Hajime let him down on the ground, and scratched his head. Oikawa and he weren’t that close, yet, so calling him by his first name… wouldn’t that make their friendship — if he could even call it that — super awkward?
He chose to ignore Takeru’s statement, as Takeru did the same, running away to get his toys to show to Hajime. He sat down, not daring to look Oikawa in his eyes.
“You don’t have to call me by my first name if that makes you uncomfortable,” Oikawa cut in, his thoughts disrupted and suddenly gone. Hajime just nodded.
His smile had faltered a little, he noticed right as Takeru was making his comeback, hands full with toys. He quickly made sure to smile widely as Takeru yelled out his name, coming back for him.
“Sorry for making you go through all of this,” Oikawa said, opening the door for him. Unintentionally — maybe? — Oikawa walked Hajime to his car. “He can get so excited when he wants something, as you might have noticed,” he quickly added.
“It was alright,” Hajime said. “Don’t worry about it too much. I honestly had a blast and I could tell Takeru did, too.”
“He sure did.” Oikawa was clearly thinking back about the memories that were made.
“This is my car.” Hajime suddenly hated saying that. He didn’t want to leave yet.
They weren’t looking at each other as the sun was setting. Hajime thought the colors were pretty and wanted to ask Oikawa what he thought as another thought popped in. The thought of how how pretty Oikawa must look like in the colors of the setting sun.
“Do you—” Hajime started right as Oikawa was about to open his mouth. “You first,” he said softly, his voice softer than he had intended. And he had been right: the sunset did look pretty on Oikawa’s features.
“Uh… okay… I was going to ask if I can have your number?” Oikawa was looking down, a light blush creeping up on his cheek. Hajime saw it.
“Oh, absolutely.” He whipped out his phone and quickly — fumbling, actually — got his contacts list out for Oikawa to put his in. Oikawa did the same for him.
“Cool.” Hajime put away his phone. “Cool,” he nervously repeated.
“Cool,” Oikawa repeated as well.
Hajime looked at Oikawa, their eyes meeting. Their stare felt like a century long, but it was only mere seconds before Oikawa quickly looked away, blush still painted on his cheeks.
“I gotta get home, too, so I’ll get back to my sister’s now.”
“I can drive you home if you want?” Hajime slipped, followed by a slap to his forehead (and not a mental one).
Oikawa laughed as his hand dripped off his face. Hajime liked that. “I’m good. I came by bike, but thank you for the offer, though.”
“Okay, then.” He opened the door to his car. “Well,” he started, sitting down, “see you around on campus, then?”
Oikawa nodded. “Yeah. See you around on campus.” His voice was softer than before, Hajime realized as he slammed his door close and was waving to Oikawa as he drove off.
Way softer.
What Hajime didn’t know, however, was the fact that Oikawa had saved his contact under ‘Iwa-chan’.
When did it start bothering Iwaizumi that they were only greeting each other on campus?
When did it start bothering Iwaizumi that they hadn’t texted since that day and the only thing they texted was a ‘im home wbu’ and a ‘Home too!’ back.
When did it start bothering him that the only smile they shared was when they walked past each other, raising just a hand?
Oikawa [8:18 pm]: do you want to go to the science museum with me and Takeru next Friday? if i’m right you have fridays off?
Iwaizumi [8:19 pm]: YES
Iwaizumi [8:19 pm]: i mean
Iwaizumi [8:19 pm]: sounds good
Oikawa [8:29 pm]: cool !!
Oikawa [8:30 pm]: one question tho
Oikawa [8:30 pm]: can you drive us?
Iwaizumi [8:49 pm]: sure that shouldn’t be a problem
It’s safe to say that Iwaizumi was, in fact, freaking out.
The time flew by so fast, and by the time it was Friday he hadn’t thought that much about it.
But now it was Friday morning, 8 am — note: he needs to leave at 9:30 — and he’s freaking out over what to wear. Actually, why should he? It’s not like they’re going on a date or anything, with Oikawa bringing Takeru and it actually being their appointment first. He was coming in second place.
Should he wear the black pants or his favorite ripped jeans? What will make his thighs look good? Why even do his thighs need to look good? Ugh.
Should he wear his favorite sweater or his favorite t-shirt. Which will look better on him? Does he want to look like boyfriend material a good person or make his muscles stand out?
Why did this even bother him this much? This was driving him crazy. Fuck.
He kept running his hands through his hair, sighing expressively, and throwing one piece of clothing on the ground after the next.
He couldn’t believe this was making him so agitated .The time suddenly read 9:02 and he really should be making work of his outfit.
Oh, fuck it all. He grabbed the nearest hoodie and pants and just prayed to the fashion lords that it was going to work. It probably won’t but he could still pray.
He drove off to Oikawa’s house — Oikawa had texted him the address yesterday, and it made Hajime feel something he couldn’t really place. The closer he got to Oikawa’s place, the more nervous he was becoming. His heart was racing in his chest and he just wanted it to stop.
Oikawa got in once he’d reached his house, telling him he’d do the directions for him so that he can turn his phone off. Hajime had only been to Takeru’s place once but he could tell they weren’t headed for Takeru’s house.
“Where are we going?”
“To the science museum,” Oikawa said in all seriousness.
“What about Takeru?”
“Oh, didn’t I tell you?”
“Tell me what?”
“Takeru wasn’t allowed to actually come. My sister had him stay at home.”
Hajime didn’t really buy it, but he was too focused on the road to continue the conversation.
“Oh,” he just says. “Okay.”
So that means the two of them will be on a date. A date.
Hajime could have decided to turn around and not take Oikawa’s statement because Takeru wasn’t tagging along, but he actually didn’t mind.
On the road they talked about uni and found out the many things the two of them and their separate educations had in common. They were laughing about the professors they shared and talked about where their favorite spots were. Turned out Oikawa and Hajime had a lot more in common than they had realized before. Especially Hajime.
Their date inside the science museum went very smoothly. Hajime enjoyed the time he spent with Oikawa and — if he was right — so did Oikawa.
Hajime still wanted to bring up the aforementioned ‘fact’ about Takeru not actually joining and it just being the two of them, but he couldn’t find the right time.
Until Oikawa offered to take him to his favorite cafe in the neighborhood they were in.
“Oikawa,” Hajime started, interrupting him. “I want to know something.”
Oikawa stopped in his tracks and was softly affected by Hajime’s serious face. “What is it?”
“Why didn’t Takeru join us? The real reason, I mean. I want to know it.”
He started laughing nervously. “Haha, what do you mean?”
“You know I’m not actually buying you saying Takeru can’t join us because of his mom wanting him to be at home?” Hajime didn’t look at Oikawa. Instead, he stared at the ground, fidgeting his hands in his pockets.
“Oh,” sounded Oikawa’s voice. It was a new sound; Hajime had been unfamiliar with it before. But he did know he wanted to get used to that voice.
“You didn’t think I would buy that, did you? Before you and your sister were saying you wanted me to entertain him, and now he has to stay at home? I mean, if it’s true, then alright I’m here for that, but it doesn’t sound believable, you know?” Hajime breathed in. That was a long sentence he didn’t mean to say like that.
“I guess you’re right,” Oikawa confessed.
It took Hajime off guard.
“Oh?”
“I just wanted to spend some time together. The two of us. On a date,” Oikawa confessed.
“A… a date?” Hajime stuttered. Oikawa nodded.
“A date, yeah,” he repeated.
So it was a date? Hajime didn’t know what to believe. At first he was thinking about the two of them feeling l like they were on a date and these were Oikawa’s exact intentions? That was… weird to say in the least.
“Oh,” was the only thing Hajime could get out.
“Do you hate that thought?” Oikawa asked him, all of a sudden.
Hajime looked up, Oikawa was staring at him. Suddenly becoming immensely self conscious of himself, Hajime bit his lip and ran his hand through his hair. Did he hate that thought? He didn’t really know for sure. He was almost sure he liked it more than he was admitting to himself right now.
“I… don’t think I do,” he finally decided on saying.
That seemed to relieve Oikawa. “Good.”
It was silent for the next couple seconds between them. Hajime didn’t know what to say and neither did Oikawa.
“I like you, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa blurted out.
That damned nickname.
It took Hajime back. “What?” he managed to get out. “What do you mean.”
Oikawa sighed loudly. “I like you a lot. Like a lot-lot. I didn’t really know before because you were always hanging with my nephew, but I know for sure now. After having spent some time with you today, when it was just the two of us and we were having so much fun — again, with just the two of us and no annoying nephew involved—”
“It was fun with Takeru, though,” Hajime interrupted him.
“Iwa-chan! That’s beside the point,” Oikawa scolded him. He sighed again, getting back into his story. “Anyways, I finally realized after that that I just wanted to spent some time with you — alone. I wanted a deeper connection with you and this was the only way I felt like accomplishing that.”
They didn’t make eye contact. Oikawa was unsure of looking Hajime in the eyes, while the latter didn’t mind staring at Oikawa.
“Are you serious?”
“Yes!”
“Oh.”
“Yeah…” Oikawa took a deep breath. “So, yeah. I like you, Iwa-chan,” he muttered again.
Hajime thought back to the times he was thinking about Oikawa in his daily life, even when the two of them hadn’t seen each other in a couple days. How Oikawa would occupy his mind and he didn’t bother thinking about anything else. How he would think about asking Oikawa what his favorite color was, or what ice cream he liked best, or what his favorite animal was… all the cliche questions you could think of, he wanted to ask them to Oikawa.
“You don’t have to answer me right now,” Oikawa said. “Don’t worry too much about that. I just wanted to make sure to have said it before we split ways and I’d regret it yet again.”
“Again?”
Oikawa laughed. Hajime found himself liking the sound of it.
“Heck yeah, again,” he grinned. “I tried dropping so many hints and you were just not picking them up. I was worried you only talked to me for Takeru, you know.”
“Oh.” He thought for a second. “You don’t have to be afraid of that anymore, though.”
Oikawa stopped laughing. “I don’t?”
“No. I… think… I think I’d like to try and return those feelings,” he confessed, his blood slowly rising up to his cheeks. He couldn’t recall the last time his cheeks had felt this hot.
“Really?”
“Really. Oikawa, I mean it. I… was unsure how to address it since it honestly has been some time for me—”
“Are you serious? But you’re so super hot!” Oikawa exclaimed, stepping closer to Hajime and firing up his cheeks even more.
He didn’t know what to say in return, especially with Oikawa this close to him.
“Oikawa, I’m trying to be serious right now.”
“I know, and I think it’s adorable.”
Hajime sighed frustratedly. “I guess.”
“You should start calling me Tooru, though,” Oikawa said, teasing Hajime with a finger trailing over his arm. “Iwa-chan.”
Of course, Hajime would give into that. Maybe, just maybe, he could get used to this.