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Hajime, when asked, will always deny it when someone claims him to be attractive. Oikawa was attractive, anyone could see that, with his extravagant personality, and his handsome features, anyone would be able to look at him and think he was attractive. Hajime on the other hand, was more rough around the edges. where Oikawa was all smooth flirting, Hajime was bumbling through half-assed compliments. It was clear, Oikawa was all around, better relationship material than Hajime. He had spent his whole life listening to others talk about how much they liked Oikawa so much, and how many confessions he got while they were at Aoba Johsai. Hajime had never heard anyone talk about him like that, and he never had nearly as many confessions as Oikawa did, but he wasn’t too concerned about it, more focused on other things, relationships were a second hand thought to him.
In college Hajime had been on a lot more dates than in high school, something about not being in Oikawa’s shadow probably. And every single time, without thought, he would call his best friend to brag, just to keep Oikawa humble, he would always claim.
“Who was it this time Iwa-chan? Another lovely picnic with, oh what was her name now… Eliza? Emma? Ella? Or did you finally go see that one guy you were talking to? Oh, the suspense is killing me, tell me already!” Oikawa was as exuberant as ever it seemed, more excited about Hajime’s love life than he is.
“Actually I went out with Ushijima-”
“USHIWAKA??” a squawk sounded from the speakers on Hajime’s phone. “What on earth are you doing going out with Ushiwaka, Iwa-chan, I thought I could trust you.” Hajime could practically hear the pout in Oikawa’s voice.
“Relax, Shittykawa, it was nothing, just a little lunch to catch up with each other while he’s visiting his dad. You really need to get over that petty little rivalry, he’s a nice guy.” Another squawk, Hajime grinned, Oikawa was such a baby sometimes. He should know by now that Hajime only dates people who remind him of his best friend. Elaina, for example, was a setter on her high school volleyball team, just like Oikawa, she also had similar mannerisms to Hajime’s best friend. That should have been Oikawa’s first clue, but he was also never the brightest bulb in the bunch.
They continued playing catch-up on Hajime’s and Oikawa’s love lives for the next few hours, before Oikawa claimed he needed his beauty sleep. If Hajime had been paying close enough attention, he would have noticed the hint of jealousy in his best friend’s voice when he mentioned Ushijima, but he brushed it off as Oikawa just being tired, and a little brat.
The next few times they called, Oikawa made sure to keep all talk about dates short and to the point, which was odd for him, Hajime thought. Normally he liked to endlessly brag about his latest conquests, not to mention how much he loved hearing about how Hajime himself was doing, but lately he hated talking about his own love life, and hated talking about Hajime’s even more. He just brushed it off as Oikawa being Oikawa and left it at that.
Time passed and eventually Oikawa got over whatever had been happening, and their conversations returned to normal, although, now they were mostly filled with talk about Hajime returning to Japan. Hajime was excited, yet also sad, the time difference between them would only grow, and they wouldn’t be able to talk as much as they would like. Oikawa expressed the same concern, but in total confidence declared, “I’m not letting my Iwa-chan slip away from me, so I’ll do everything I can to continue talking to him.”
“You mean annoying me,” Hajime said.
“Rude Iwa-chan!” Oikawa huffed. Hajime smiled, he missed seeing his best friend in person, Oikawa may be annoying as hell, he mused, but there’s a reason they’ve been friends for so long.
The first few months Hajime was back in Japan were rough, he was looking for a job, trying to catch up with old friends, and most importantly, he was trying to stay in touch with Oikawa through it all.
A few months later is when he got the offer.
Athletic trainer for the National team? He smiled. Now that sounded like fun. A few weeks later, he was face to face with some very familiar faces.
Ushijima and Kageyama were both respectful when they greeted him at the first practice, walking up to him with their hands linked and a gruff “thank you for training us” falling from their lips. Always so formal, those two. Hajime grinned, they were a cute couple, perfect for each other in almost every way. He couldn’t wait to see them work together on the court with this newfound relationship. The rest of the team was much more excited about him joining them, all except Sakusa, who stood away from the group, and had a very interesting look on his face.
During the time leading up to the Olympics, Hajime got closer and closer to the team, he would laugh at Kageyama and Hinata’s antics, he would make fun of Atsumu with Yaku and Sakusa, he even helped Sakusa with his wrist mobility, to the apparent disgust of some of the team members. He thought the hypermobile joints were cool, not disgusting, but to each his own.
Soon as footage started coming out of their practices, social media took to Hajime like a wildfire, to say the least, they adored him. Fans poured over footage like they were starving, soon creating ‘Hajime Iwaizumi thirst accounts’ he would have to ask Oikawa about that later, and dubbing the national team ‘Hajime Iwaizumi’s Harem’ he would have to ask Oikawa about that too. Some of the team got a kick out of the latter, soon flirting even more with him than they already did. Every single advance left him a flustered mess, something Atsumu took great pleasure in.
That night when he got home, he called Oikawa, hoping he wouldn’t disturb his friend.
“Iwa-chan! I thought I would never hear your voice again! I was starting to think something terrible had happened to you.” Hajime could tell that Oikawa was barely holding in his laughter. He rolled his eyes at his friend’s antics.
“Enough Shittykawa, it’s been three days, I’ve been busy, unlike you.” A low blow, by the hurt sound that came out of his friend’s mouth.
“Rude, Iwa-chan! Someone should teach you some manners.” Hajime scoffed. “Anyways, I think I know why you’re calling me Iwa-chan. You need some advice from wise Tooru. Well you came to the right place.”
“Shut up Loserkawa.” A squawk. He rolled his eyes again.
“Well fine, then Iwa-chan. Maybe I won’t help you with your little fanclub problem.” Hajime sighed. “That’s what I thought.”
Their conversation continued, with Oikawa reading some very descriptive tweets from Hajimes ‘fanclub’. Hajime even asked Oikawa if he was part of this ‘fanclub’ to which Oikawa’s response was some very adorable sputtering and denial. When the conversation moved to Hajime’s ‘harem’ however, Oikawa suddenly declared that he had something to take care of, and hung up on Hajime. Huh he thought, the conversation had been lighthearted and fun when talking about people they didn’t know thirsting over Hajime, but when they moved on to talking about Hajime’s team thirsting over him, Oikawa ran away. He didn’t think too hard about it, too tired to try and figure out why Oikawa would be acting weird about it. If Oikawa wanted to talk, then he would, there was no need to force the subject.
A few months later, the Olympics finally rolled around. The National team was a symphony of nerves and excitement, Hinata especially, practically vibrating where he stood. They walked onto the court, and immediately his eyes met his best friend’s. This was the moment both of them had been waiting for, months of anticipation building up to this very game. Hajime was excited to finally see Oikawa play, and to see how his knee had been holding up. He was momentarily distracted by Ushijima, asking about some stretches that they had been trying out recently, he looked back at Oikawa, only to see his best friend nowhere in sight. Odd. He led Ushijima over to the side of the court and led him through the stretches. After that time flew, the sets breezed past him as he watched from the sidelines, his eyes mostly focused on Oikawa, though he would be the last to admit.
Soon it was over, Argentina had won. Although it was a hard loss for the team, he was still proud of them for making it this far, taking home a silver medal was nothing to beat yourself up over. He locked eyes with Oikawa across the court, he looked beautiful like this. It was amazing that Hajime had never actually noticed how attractive his best friend was, but in this moment, sweat dripping down his face, his body sagging in relief that the game was finally over, his face, glowing with victory, he was gorgeous.
Hajime was forced to look away when pulled into a team huddle by Ushijima. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Oikawa crumble just a little bit, but no matter, he would catch up with him later, right now the team was going to spend some time together to discuss the game, and celebrate the silver medals.
A few hours had passed when Hajime finally made it back to his room in Olympic Village. He sat on his bed and pulled out his phone, checking for messages from his best friend. He had several messages leading up to an hour before the match started, but his phone was oddly bare of notifications from Oikawa after that. He texted his friend asking if he could come over to his room so they could finally catch up in person. He didn’t expect a response right away, so he set his phone aside and laid down for the night, not realizing how tired he was, he slipped into a peaceful sleep soon after.
In the morning, Hajime still hadn’t received a reply from Oikawa, which was strange, he was sure that his friend would want to catch up after all this time apart. After thinking it through, he realized that maybe Oikawa had just had a busy night, what with winning gold, his team probably stayed up almost all night celebrating. Hajime decided it might just be best to go to Oikawa’s room anyways.
As he approached Oikawa’s room, he suddenly felt anxious. He felt like he shouldn’t be here. He kept going, even though his gut told him to turn around. He walked up to Oikawa’s door and knocked. After no reply, he tried the doorknob, it was unlocked. He slowly opened the door. The room was dark, but he could make out Oikawa’s figure in the middle of the bed. He softly called out to his friend. There was no response. He must still be asleep, Hajime reasoned. He went to shake Oikawa, but when he walked up to him, Hajime realized his eyes were open.
“Oikawa?” He questioned the other man, concern lacing his words.
“Why are you here Iwaizumi.” Oikawa answered. Hajime flinched. Oikawa almost never used his whole last name.
“I wanted to see my best friend after his big win.” Hajime didn’t understand why Oikawa was questioning him. He thought that his friend would be ecstatic to see him. “And maybe I wanted to see him since it's been almost 9 years since we saw each other last.”
“You seemed much more excited to cling to Ushijima yesterday then you were to see me.” It sounded like Oikawa was about to start crying. “I didn’t know you two got so close recently. I should have seen it coming though.”
“Seen it coming? Tooru what are you talking about?” Hajime was more than confused at this point. He was simply being friendly with Ushijima, Kageyama had staked enough claim on him in the past few months that no one else on the team even thought about flirting with the wing spiker, even jokingly.
“Your first date, when you were at Irvine. Then the way he looked at you during practices. It’s obvious you two are dating, even a blind person could see it.” Oikawa sat up. There were tears in the corners of his eyes. Daing? Him and Ushijima? No, first of all he would never do that to Kageyama. Second, Ushijima was the farthest thing from his type.
“Tooru.” Oikawa looked up at him, his lower lip was beginning to tremble slightly. “Ushijima and I are not dating,” Oikawa scoffed, but let Hajime continue. “He’s dating Kageyama. Has been actually, since Kageyama joined the Adlers.”
Oikawa’s eyes widened in disbelief. “Ushiwaka and Tobio-chan. Dating?”
Hajime chuckled, “Yes Shittykawa, I figured it out as soon as practices for the national team started. You would have to be blind to not see that. Kageyama told me all about it one day, its an adorable story, full of Kageyama thinking Ushijima was dating Tendou, and Ushijima thinking Kageyama was dating Hinata. You should ask him someday.”
Oikawa’s eyes brightened. The tears in his eyes were slowly receding. “You, you mean, you’re not dating anyone, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa questioned him with a glimmer of hope in his eyes.
“No Shittykawa, I was saving myself for a stubborn loser this whole time, I thought you got all the hints.” He looked back on all his conversations with Oikawa. The fact that he never dated anyone unless they looked suspiciously similar to Oikawa must have been a dead giveaway. Along with him constantly berating Oikawa’s choice in romantic partners. Not only that, but he outright asked if Oikawa was a part of the ‘Hajime Iwaizumi Harem’ he thought that would have been enough of a clue that he was in love with his best friend. Apparently he wasn’t very good at hints. “Oikawa Tooru. I have been in love with you for so long, I can’t even begin to tell you.”
He smiled down softly at Oikawa. “W-well Iwa-chan. Don’t steal my thunder like this! I was supposed to win gold and steal your heart away from Ushiwaka!”
“Shittykawa you don’t have to steal my heart away from anyone, it’s been yours since we met.” He leaned in closer to Oikawa and gathered the setter in his arms, “I love you, even if you are stupid sometimes.”
“Iwa-chan! Ru-” Oikawa was cut off as Hajime gently pressed their lips together. “I guess I can forgive you, Hajime.”
Hajime flushed. “I can forgive you too, Tooru. But honestly I thought the signs were obviou-”
“They were not! You are so bad at clues I’m amazed you even confessed to me!”
“Don’t be dramatic Tooru.” Hajime looked down at his best fri- boyfriend and smiled softly, sure Oikawa could be an idiot, but now he was Hajime’s idiot.