Chapter Text
“Iwa-chan, what do you know about soulmates?” Oikawa pops the question out of nowhere in the afternoon of one of their practices as they’re picking up balls near the entrance to the gym. Sunlight streams in at a low angle through the open door, basking the two in a comfortable warmth.
Oikawa Tooru doesn’t remember the first time he met Iwaizumi Hajime. His earliest memory of them is sometime around kindergarten or elementary school; it’s nothing more than some filterless banter that’s nonsensical only in the way that children’s thoughts can be. He remembers that Iwa-chan back then had been less prickly than he was now, in the cute stubborn way that young children are.
Truly, it feels to Oikawa that Iwaizumi has always been a part of his life, no matter where they're at.
“Soulmates?” He has a strange look on his face. A beat passes in thought as he reaches out to roll another ball towards himself. “Not much. Haven’t really thought about it. Why? Did some girl ask you to eat her baked goods in front of her or something?”
Oikawa huffs out a laugh in response. Those incidents aren’t as embarrassing as they are slightly annoying, no matter how easily he gives out his polite and indulging smiles. Sure, he gets to eat sweets and snacks for free, but he really doesn’t think he’s going to end up finding his soulmate through them offering him food as a confession gift.
“Nah, I was just thinking. People are starting to look for their soulmates now that we’re in middle school. I was wondering how it’d be to meet them.” Oikawa turns back to Iwaizumi, arms full with volleyballs that look like they could topple at any moment. He’s grinning, eyes glinting with something akin to a croon. “Speaking of, does Iwa-chan like someone? Aw, who’s the lucky lady? Or is it a mysterious guy? Don’t worry, Iwa-chan I won’t judge! You know you can always tell--”
“Oi! Iwaizumi! Oikawa! Hurry it up back there!” Much to Iwaizumi’s relief, Oikawa’s teasing gets cut short by their coach as they both startle and scramble for the balls they almost let drop. In hindsight, Oikawa thanks his coach for saving him from the possibility of having been pummeled by one of the volleyballs Iwaizumi had been holding had he gotten the chance to finish his sentence.
After that, they don’t touch the topic of soulmates for a while.
Iwaizumi Hajime knows who his soulmate is. He’s known for a while now, because really, who else could be causing him to taste milk bread at any given moment?
But before that, for years, the idea of soulmates was elusive to him. He’d asked his parents about it a little, but hadn’t gotten any more than the ordinary answer somewhere along the lines of “taste” and “you’ll know it when you see them.” (Which really didn’t help at all, because how can you explain to an elementary schooler that they’ll know “the one” just through a feeling when you see them?) The topic was breached occasionally at school, but the teachers would always skim the edges before brushing it off as something that would be taught in middle school.
Sometimes, he’d see his classmates try to figure their soulmates by buying sour candy or eating things with a particularly distinct taste. He would never admit it, but Iwaizumi also sometimes treated himself to sweets or dessert at random times throughout the day, in hopes that his soulmate would appreciate the taste with him.
He wondered once if his soulmate was living in a different time zone than he was, but based on the fact that he only felt the phantom tastes around his own meal times or in short bursts in between, he felt that it was safe to say that his soulmate was in Japan as well.
And then, sometime in middle school, he found himself spending almost whole days with the faint taste of milk bread at the tip of his tongue. At first he thought that it might have just been cravings getting the best of him. What he found was, well, not exactly what he had been expecting.
In hindsight, it was probably very obvious as to what this meant and he should have been able to decipher it the moment he felt it.
Oikawa Tooru, his best friend since forever ago, is his soulmate.
A lot of it made sense. Iwaizumi hadn’t really tasted what his soulmate was eating for breakfast or lunch, because they were almost always eating at the same time. He would always walk to school with Oikawa, so breakfast overlapped more often than not. They ate lunch together from the school cafeteria on most days. Dinner usually happened right after they got home from practice.
That said, the idea of it still scared him a little. Sure, he’d known Oikawa his whole life. They were practically sharing blankets at newborns. They had grown up with each other, and to Iwaizumi, Oikawa was just as much of a central character in his life as he was himself.
Between the two of them, they’d talked about soulmates on the passing, joking and wondering if they could determine whether or not their soulmates were rich based off of the food they were eating. (They couldn’t, they decided in the end.)
But best friends were one thing, soulmates were another. He most definitely wasn’t ready to unpack that particular can of worms and their implications, so Iwaizumi (carefully) had folded the thought back up and pushed it to the pack of his mind. He had more important things to focus on at that time, like volleyball, and beating Shiratorizawa.
Now, a couple of years later, Iwaizumi rarely approaches the topic of soulmates. He’s careful to listen in on the side when the topic comes up in conversations, but avoids getting involved once it gets directed to him.
It’s not an easy task, ignoring such a large part of him. It’s always a present reminder when he tastes the same brand of milk bread in the breaks between their classes just before he catches sight of Oikawa waltzing through the door. But he somehow manages, pushing it further and further to the back of his mind, beyond school and volleyball; somewhere he only dares to intrude upon in the comforts and quiet of his room at night.
To Iwaizumi, Oikawa is...sort of an enigma. Of course, given that he’d known Oikawa longer than just about anyone else, he could say for sure that he knew his friend pretty well. But that didn’t mean Oikawa was any less of a mystery sometimes, especially on days when he gets a glimpse into the boy beyond layers of a frivolous personality.
He’s more than aware of Oikawa’s flamboyant and theatrical nature (as he’s frequently on the receiving end of it), which he displays proudly to everyone he meets, and he’s very well acquaintanced with his somewhat brash and petty antics as well. Iwaizumi knows of Oikawa’s tendencies to be flirtatious to just about anyone (and anything) that would listen, and he also knows that to a certain extent, it gives off the facade of a smug, if not shallow character.
But over time, through watching Oikawa through volleyball and their times practically attached by the hip, Iwaizumi catches bits of pieces of Oikawa that is so profoundly disjunct that it almost shocks him the first time he sees it.
It’s a sharp contrast to what Iwaizumi first thought was Oikawa’s shield of childishness and jokes. (He later finds that it’s not much of a shield as it is truly just a part of him.) It rears its head the most during volleyball, whether it’s at a particularly rigorous practice or at a match against a rival school. He sees it when he watches with nerves clenched tight as Oikawa almost crumbles into himself after their match with Shiratorizawa, through the increasingly intense atmosphere and practices lined with frustration.
As they start towards high school, he sees it grow into something healthier, something that brings out the best in him, when Oikawa begins to gradually ease into a better understanding of teamwork and striving for “perfection.” And it’s somewhere along those lines that Iwaizumi finds himself wanting for something more with another person for the first time in his life.
He’s not exactly sure of the when and the why and the how, but the feeling’s more than enough to have him fumbling in mindless and nervous energy for a couple days, before Oikawa’s questioning looks punch his consciousness enough for him to snap himself out of it.
Their differences are rather obvious to him. While Oikawa gives out smiles and winks like candy and is a bundle of spirited energy, Iwaizumi finds himself rarely truly laughing or comfortable with crowds like his friend is. Oikawa is the type to make heads turn and bask in the attention, while Iwaizumi is, comparatively, more ordinary. The difference doesn't hurt him as much as it makes him consider their individual dynamics a little more.
Oikawa, as per usual, stays oblivious to his musings, of course.