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Oikawa never liked summer camp. It was boring and filled with grubby-handed children, none of whom were his age. He glanced over from where his head was resting on his hand to look at the child holding up a beaded lizard craft to his face.
“Look Oikawa-san!” the child exclaimed excitedly, shaking the charm around. Oikawa’s mouth remained in the same straight line, unmoved by the child’s emotion. He nodded slightly before turning away to look back at the lake he was previously staring at.
“You know you could at least pretend to be excited,” a camp counselor said. The silvery-haired man knelt down to the child, examining the craft and marveling at the child’s handiwork. The kid smiled and walked away.
“I’d rather not waste my energy,” Oikawa mumbled. The counselor snorted as he took a seat beside Oikawa.
“Why do you even come here if you hate it so much,” the man asked. Oikawa rolled his eyes; they always asked him this, year after year.
“My mom says that it’s good to get away for a while. She thinks it’ll help me make friends,” Oikawa looked back to where the children sat at their tables, gluing together paper and sticks. “She doesn’t really understand that the only friends I could make here are ten years younger than I am.”
“Well, I’ve heard that that’s going to change,” said the other, watching Oikawa’s face light up a little. “They say that there are some kids around our age coming this year.”
“Suga, if you’re lying to me, I’m gonna kick you,” Oikawa said, trying his best to hide the eager smile that had crept onto his face.
“Not a chance,” Suga laughed, standing up and making his way back to the kids who talked excitedly about what color of glitter to use next. The brown-haired boy turned his attention back to the rippling lake, wondering about the next few days.
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The new kids were alright, Oikawa thought. There were three others that were his age, but they were rarely paired up for anything together. Oikawa deemed this to be especially awful because one of the new boys was really cute. His name, Oikawa had learned, was Iwaizumi Hajime. Of course, he hadn't learned it from Iwaizumi himself because they hadn’t ever been grouped together for any of the activities.
Today, that had all changed. Today’s activity was capture-the-flag, and Oikawa thanked every god he knew when his name was called alongside Iwaizumi’s when they were all separated into teams. They were all given blue shirts to change into to designate what team they were on. Oikawa realized pretty quickly that they wouldn’t be going back to the cabins to change when he watched one boy strip off his shirt and throw it to the ground. He really should’ve been more ashamed of how fast he whipped his head around to Iwaizumi, but he wasn’t. And he definitely didn’t have enough shame to not stare at the boy as he changed into his blue shirt.
Once the game had started, Oikawa had been pushed to the front lines. He and Iwaizumi were the oldest ones, so naturally, they led the rest of the children to find the other team’s flag. Oikawa felt his heart beating fast, but he didn’t know if it was because of the excitement of the game or because of the amazingly attractive guy right next to him. He was leaning towards the latter reasoning, but before he could think of it earlier, a crashing sound was coming from the forest around them.
He turned his head to see a few boys in red shirts running towards them from the trees. They must be close to the flag, if they’re being attacked like this, he thought as he dodged their advances, moving past them to search for the flag. He heard footsteps behind him and fearfully craned his neck to see who it was. Much to his relief, it was just Iwaizumi. He raced ahead before briefly pausing on the bank of a creek. Just across the water lay a red piece of cloth hanging from a tree branch.
“I guess that’s it,” he heard from behind him. Iwaizumi panted out the words, bent over like Oikawa as both of them struggled to catch their breath. The words barely registered in Oikawa’s mind, as he was far too distracted on how good Iwaizumi’s voice sounded. Damn, was everything about this guy cute or what!?
After the silence had dragged on a bit too long and Iwaizumi was starting to have a somewhat confused expression come over his face, Oikawa nodded in confirmation to the other’s words. He climbed down the bank before jumping across the small stream of water. He reached up to the cloth, tugging of the branch. He bundled up the fabric and threw it across the water to where Iwaizumi still sat on the bank.
He watched the boy catch it and stand up. He waved at Oikawa, motioning for him to come back across the creek. Oikawa tried to hop across the water again, but failed to notice moss on one of the rocks and slipped unceremoniously into the water. He lay there for a moment, not quite understanding what had just happened. He was drawn out of his confused trance by a bellowing laugh above him. Iwaizumi was bracing himself against a tree as he cackled.
“Yeah, yeah, real funny,” Oikawa spat, sitting up and crawling up the bank to where Iwaizumi was. Iwaizumi was still doubled over with laughter as Oikawa glared at him, his cheeks tinted with embarrassment. Great first impression , he thought miserably. “Ugh, let’s go,” he said frustratedly as he sped away from Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi just kept laughing in response. They had been walking for a few minutes, and Oikawa could no longer ignore the giggles coming from behind him.
“Oh my god, can you give it a rest already!?” Oikawa knew his face was probably beet-red, but he was too mad to care at this point.
“No,” the other replied, still smiling widely at Oikawa’s soaked clothes. “It’s not every day you see something that funny.” Oikawa huffed and turned around, stomping away from the boy. It was quiet for a while, the only noises being the angry crunches of Oikawa’s footsteps.
“What’s your name?” Iwaizumi asked randomly, still unable to wipe the smile from his face.
“Oikawa.” The response was curt and short, an undertone of annoyance lacing it as well.
“Hah, more like Idiot-kawa,” he laughed. The brown-haired boy whipped around, his mouth dropping open at the insult.
“What!?” he squawked, his brow furrowing indignantly. Iwaizumi just laughed, and although he was mad, Oikawa couldn’t deny how cute the other’s laugh was. It was starting to get embarrassing how much he liked this boy, and now he was making fun of him!
“Do I have to spell it out for you, Idiot-kawa?” Iwaizumi joked once more.
“I’m not an idiot, I just slipped!”
“Idiots don't check for moss before they hop a creek.” Oikawa rolled his eyes at the comment. They kept walking until they reached their base, running to place the flag on their own tree branch. The other boy’s cheered as they hung the red cloth up, signifying that they’d won the game. Oikawa walked off towards his cabin before any of the kids could ask about his wet clothes.
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The days had passed on, and Oikawa had yet to be grouped with Iwaizumi again. Part of him was upset that he wasn’t able to be around the boy, but the other half was glad that he wouldn’t have any more chances to humiliate himself. Altogether, he was having an incredibly terrible time.
The sun was starting to set now, and he would have to pull himself out of his miserable pouting state to go eat dinner soon. He trudged out the door and made his way down to the pavilion where dinner was served. He watched as the others began to pour out of their cabins and swarm the dinner tables. He saw Iwaizumi sit a few tables away from him, talking to a girl and laughing as he did. Oikawa sighed as he stuffed his face. He’d already lost his chance.
Despite his best efforts, he couldn’t force himself to stay through dinner and he escaped to the lake. He sat on the rocky shore, occasionally picking up stones and skipping them on the surface of the water. The seclusion of his position and the roar of thoughts in his mind was his excuse for missing the noise of footsteps coming up behind him.
“What are you doing out here?” a voice asked, startling Oikawa, causing him to stumble forward and trip into the lake. When he looked up from his spot in the water, he found Iwaizumi cackling at him. “Damn, you’re really good at that,” he laughed out.
Oikawa rolled his eyes. “Tell me about it…” He now had managed to fall into a body of water not once, but twice in front of his crush. He had begun to think that the universe really had it out for him. He heard a splash beside him as a spray of water hit his face. When he wiped away the water from his eyes, he saw an equally-wet Iwaizumi with him in the lake.
“Water’s not bad,” he said, smiling at Oikawa. Oikawa smiled back as he splashed water at Iwaizumi. They swam for a bit like that, occasionally pushing water towards one another. After a while, the moon had begun to rise in the sky and the night sky above them deepened into a dark blue. They climbed out of the water and made their way back towards the pavilion. Oikawa could hear the tune of a poorly-sang campfire song coming from the small building and sighed exasperatedly.
“What?” Iwaizumi asked, noticing Oikawa’s complaining.
“They’re singing,” Oikawa whined. “I hate singing, they're not even good songs!”
“I mean, it’s not, like, mandatory is it?” Iwaizumi asked, watching Oikawa’s face brighten a bit at the suggestion. Iwaizumi wasn’t too much of a fan of singing either.
“I like the way you think Iwaizumi!” Oikawa smiled mischievously, taking Iwaizumi’s hand and pulling him over to one of the trees. Oikawa grabbed onto one of the branches and hauled himself up into the tree, settling on one of its large boughs. Iwaizumi followed suit, chasing after Oikawa and sitting next to him on the branch.
“I doubt anyone will find us here, they never have before,” Oikawa said, looking towards the pavilion.
“You’ve climbed up here before?” asked Iwaizumi.
“Yep! Anytime I really don’t want to do one of those dumb activities, I climb up here,” Oikawa answered. “Been doing it for years.”
“Years? How long have you been coming to this camp?”
“Ugh, don’t remind me of how many summers I’ve had to spend here,” Oikawa groaned dramatically.
“I take it you’ve spent quite a few then?” Oikawa nodded in response. “You don’t seem to like it much,” Iwaizumi commented.
“Hmm, what gave you that impression?” Oikawa asked sarcastically, watching Iwaizumi laugh. They stayed in the tree for a while, talking all about what schools they each attended and what sports they played. Oikawa learned that Iwaizumi played volleyball just like he did. He also learned that Iwaizumi’s favorite color is yellow, he loves agedashi tofu, and would absolutely die for his pet lizard, which he named Godzilla. Iwaizumi, on the other hand, learned that Oikawa hated camp, especially the ‘annoying little kids that always try to get him to help with their dumb, little necklaces.’ But besides learning about how insufferable Oikawa was with kids, he learned that he loved milk bread and that he’d watch any movie with aliens in it.
The moon rose higher above them and they could see a bonfire near the pavilion where the kids had all lined up to roast s’mores. Part of Oikawa wanted to climb down and get some, but the rest of him wanted to stay here with Iwaizumi in the tree. He glanced over the other boy, whose gaze was fixed on the fire. He turned back to Oikawa, catching the brown-haired boy staring at him. He would’ve thought it to be creepy if he wasn’t just as interested as the other. He smiled as he watched Oikawa quickly avert his gaze in embarrassment.
He reached over to the other boy, gripping his shoulder lightly and tugging him to face him again. It was really dark at this point, but that didn’t stop Iwaizumi from noticing the blush that had settled itself onto Oikawa’s pale cheeks. He felt his own cheeks get warm as he leaned closer, closing the gap between them. Oikawa’s eyes went wide as he felt the boy’s lips against his own. It was only a few seconds before Iwaizumi pulled away, grinning at the expression on the other’s face.
“You know you can just ask me out on a date next time,” he said, watching Oikawa’s mouth break into a smile of his own. He watched Iwaizumi scoot away and climb down the tree, making his way towards the pavilion to join in on the s’mores-making.
Sure , Oikawa thought, smiling as he thought of Iwaizumi’s words. “Next time…”