Chapter Text
They meet him when they visit the local shelter, three months into their new life, when the feeling of being lonely in a foreign country is too strong to stay inside their skin and their living room. They swear to themselves that they’re only looking for information, when they leave their small apartment, that they’re not really ready.
The middle-aged lady at the counter doesn’t speak English very well, and Iwaizumi leaves Oikawa to deal with that and lags behind instead, curiously stealing glances at the puppies and kittens that he can see behind the woman’s back. The shelter is a cacophony of small meows and yapping, too crowded like they usually are. Iwaizumi had been to one just once, when he was a child, grabbing his mother’s leg, and he had come back with a small pup bundled in his arm.
Young Oikawa had been jealous of that puppy, and Iwaizumi smiles fondly at the memory; current Oikawa is bowing slightly to the lady, who looks amused by his very Japanese reflex, and gesturing for him to come closer.
“Come on, Iwa-chan,” he says, gently grabbing his arm to pull him. Iwaizumi doesn’t know why he always needs to do that; after all, it’s not like he isn’t always following anyway. “She said that there is a new litter of puppies that came up for adoption last week!”
“Weren’t we just asking for information?” he smiles, and he’s already moving behind the counter, and Oikawa’s harassed squeak makes his lips curve even more.
“There’s no harm in looking, right?” Oikawa pouts, and Iwaizumi laughs out loud this time. The woman doesn’t understand what they’re saying, but she smiles anyway because happiness is an universal language, and Iwaizumi is happy, here and now, in an animal shelter in San Juan with Oikawa.
The puppies are a lively bunch; they’re a tidal wave of warm brown fur, some splattered with white and black in a liberal amount. They pile at the small gate as they step closer, and when Oikawa climbs over in the pit he’s immediately swarmed.
Iwaizumi stays behind, content with the sight of the scene playing in front of him. Oikawa leans down, small paws and even smaller snouts immediately competing for his attention, and he laughs with delight as he lets all the puppies smell him, and climb over his legs in an overjoyed dance.
Actually, not all puppies; there’s a very small pup, his fur more black than brown, watching with sad eyes from the other side of the room. He’s curled on himself, his little tail giving some rare, weak wag, but doesn’t look like he’s going to come closer.
The lady notices Iwaizumi watching the pup, and regards him with a small smile.
“Bad leg,” she manages to say, pointing her chin at the dog. “Very small. Runt?” she asks, unsure that she’s using the right word. Iwaizumi stares, deep in thought. “Not very much request”.
Something clicks inside Iwaizumi, his chest constricting around these words. He steps into the room, over the small fence keeping the puppies contained. Oikawa looks up from where he’s folded down with the puppies.
Iwaizumi kneels when he reaches the pup, gently extending his hand for the pup to sniff. Now that he’s closer, he can see the small speckles of white admixed with his black and brown fur; and his right hinder leg is slightly crooked, and smaller than the other three.
There’s a very minute flurry of movement, and then the softest point of contact as the pup pushes his nose into Iwaizumi’s hand, resting his chin on his palm, and looks up to him with very kind eyes.
“It’s him,” Iwaizumi says, and when he turns Oikawa is staring at him with a smile on his lips, and a fond light in his eyes, and it’s breathtaking for a moment to remember that this man is his, and they’re doing this together. There’s an unexpected urgency in his voice, and his words tremble as they leave his mouth. “It’s him, Tooru”.
“Yes, I can see it, Hajime,” Oikawa is smiling, bright as the sun, as he pushes himself to stand and comes closer, letting the puppy sniff his hand as well before dragging gentle fingers through the fur on his head. “How are we calling him?”
“Ah, I don’t know,” Iwaizumi grins, his shoulder playfully jostling against Oikawa’s. “I’m leaving the hard work to you, Tooru”.
Oikawa grins back, happy and open and carefree. The puppy is a warm weight against Iwaizumi’s leg, and Oikawa is a warm anchor against his left side, and Iwaizumi allows himself to think, for a moment, that nothing could ever get any better than this.