Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Excuse me, are you Sugawara Koushi?”

When Sugawara looks up, Oikawa Tooru is just about the last person he expects to see. It throws him off considerably, but he answers even in a daze. “Yes, I am.”

Without even asking if it’s alright, Oikawa sits down. Sugawara is just about to tell him he’s waiting for someone, and that he actually can’t sit there, when he notices Oikawa looks…irritated, under his ever-present smile. He looks as if he’s clenching his teeth, and his posture is rigid. And that’s intriguing.

“Are you expecting someone?” Oikawa asks.

“Yes, I am, actually,” Sugawara replies cautiously. How did he know?

The other setter looks unusually disturbed. “I think that someone is supposed to be me.”

“That’s imposs—” It’s only then that Sugawara notices Oikawa’s bow tie, which is red.

‘She’ll be wearing a red bow.’

Of course, he had been expecting a hair bow. How clever of them. He reaches up and tugs off his blue scarf, which was supposed to have been his identifying feature.

Oikawa raises an eyebrow at him, inviting him to speak, now that he has apparently come to the same revelation.

He gives a thin smile in return, something suddenly occurring to him. ‘Oyobuka Akira.’ Sugawara reaches into his bag for something to write on and with. He finds a crumpled receipt, which he flattens out against the table, and a pen. “Oikawa-san, do you think you could write your full name on this in kanji for me?”

Oikawa, perhaps getting an idea what Sugawara could be getting at, complies. Sugawara looks at it for a moment when Oikawa pushes it over to him.

“Can’t this also be read as ‘Oyobuka Akira’?” he continues, passing the receipt back to him.

“Yes, I suppose it could. Don’t tell me…?”

“Oikawa-san, I think we’ve been set up.”

The other setter sets his elbow on the table and rests his chin in his palm. “I was getting the same idea. Don’t look now, but I’m pretty sure Tobio and that shorty from your team are sitting a few tables behind you, cosplaying or something.”

The image gives Sugawara cause to smile. So this is their revenge, huh? He has to admit, he’s impressed.

“I’m guessing they’re getting even with you for something? I’d like to hear about it.”

Sugawara doesn’t mind sharing the story. He’s rather proud of it, and he’s sure Oikawa will appreciate Kageyama’s and Hinata’s embarrassment now that he has also become the butt of their joke. “I’m sure this is about what happened at the training camp. I found them in a…rather compromising position in the bath…nothing explicit, but, you know. Not exactly innocent either. They seemed preoccupied, so it was easy to steal their clothes. I left them in a trail that led outside, then waited and pretended to hear a raccoon sneaking into the garbage, and brought the rest of the team with me. Of course, it was nothing everyone hadn’t seen before, but I suppose it was the context, and the general fact that they’d been pranked.”

“And you told them you would keep their secret so they wouldn’t freak out?”

Even off the court, Oikawa is very perceptive. “Yes, and I suppose that was my downfall.”

Oikawa leans back in his chair, smiling a little dreamily. “Then I was just an unlucky third party.”

“You have my sincerest apologies.”

He hunches over the table, looking conspiratorially at Sugawara. “I think it’s a little early for apologies, Sugawara-san. What do you say we get back at them?”

Sugawara leans forward as well. “I’m open to any suggestions you have.”

“They told you this was a date, yes?”

“Yes, although I assumed it would be with a girl.”

Oikawa nods. “I did as well. They got one of my teammates to… Well, it doesn’t matter how they did it. Anyway, don’t you think it would throw them off if we pretended to enjoy ourselves?”

Sugawara straightens up, getting an equally devious smile on his face. “I wouldn’t have a problem with it if you didn’t. How far would you want to take it?”

“I think the further we take it, the better, as long as they’re aware.”

“I was thinking the same thing.”

“Well then, Koushi-kun, tell me about yourself.”

XXX

“Ugh, I can’t see anything, move your stupid head, Kageyama!” Hinata is leaning dangerously out of his seat, trying to see around Kageyama’s tall frame.

Kageyama stomps on his foot under the table. “Idiot, stop being so conspicuous! We’ll be discovered!”

“Ow! You bastard, that hurt! Just scoot your chair a little to the side or this whole thing is pointless.”

Kageyama huffs, but does as Hinata suggests, though not so much as for it to look obvious. He’s so tempted to turn around, because he also wants to know what’s going on, but he lost at rock-paper-scissors. “What are they doing now?”

“They’re just talking. I’m surprised neither one of them has left yet.”

Kageyama is also surprised. Originally, he felt bad when Hinata suggested they use Oikawa to get back at Sugawara, but Hinata had pointed out that Suga had held his composure up against the formidable setter better than Kageyama had. Kageyama had still punched Hinata in the gut, but the point he made was valid. Third years are really impressive…

Besides, it wasn’t as if he didn’t want to get back at Suga. Someone on the team now had naked pictures of him and Hinata, not that he knew who. He hadn’t seen where the flash had come from, but his bets were on either Tsukishima or Nishinoya.

They were never going to live it down.

“What are they doing now?” he prompts again.

“Stop asking that every five seconds! I’ll tell you if something happens.” He’s quiet for half a second, then suddenly his eyes go wide with shock and he leans forward. “Oh my god!”

“What?! You just said you’d tell me if something happened!”

“Suga-san just laughed at something he said! What kind of jokes does Oikawa tell?”

Kageyama thinks for a moment. ‘Hey, Tobio, what’s the difference between a box of dead babies and a Ferrari?’ “Dead baby jokes.”

“What, seriously? Suga-san likes dead baby jokes…?” Hinata looks a little pale.

“Idiot, it’s probably not a dead baby joke!”

“That’s what you said!”

“Never mind what I said! What about now? What are they doing now?”

Hinata is looking very intently at the table beyond theirs, where their current senpai and Kageyama’s former one sit, on this fake date that they had jokingly arranged. He’s squinting. “Oikawa…looks all… Wooh,” Hinata finishes lamely.

“‘Wooh’? What the hell does that mean? Speak Japanese, you dumbass!”

His friend is going a little red. “H-He looks like… You know. When he’s talking to those fan girls he has. All… Smooth.”

Kageyama knows now exactly what he means. It hadn’t been different in middle school. “Oikawa is…flirting with him?” He dares to turn his head—slowly, carefully—until he can catch a glimpse of the other two boys. Oikawa does have his flirting face on. And then his gaze shifts beyond Sugawara right to him, and he snaps his head back. “I think he saw me,” he says, panicked.

“What should we do?! And why’d you turn around anyway, you idiot?!”

“I think we should stay. If we get up, they’ll be more likely to notice us. Just don’t watch them so closely.”

The waitress comes up to them now. “Are you boys ready to order?”

XXX

“I think it’s working,” Oikawa says with a smile. “Tobio just looked over here.”

“Oh, excellent. I’m only sorry that I can’t see them,” Sugawara replies.

“You’ll have to get a look at them before we leave. Those wigs are…really something. And Shorty’s glasses. What did you say his name was, again?”

“Hinata.”

The two of them continue their façade for the entire course of their meal. They talk, mostly about embarrassing things Kageyama had done in middle school and embarrassing things Hinata and Kageyama have done thus far in high school. When they run out of steam on those topics, they have more to discuss with setting. Apparently, Kageyama is the only one Oikawa doesn’t feel like sharing his expertise with; he is more than happy to give Sugawara some tips.

They throw in other things too, that might be a bit over the top, but seem to do the trick. They laugh at things the other says, and once Oikawa lets his hand brush Sugawara’s on the table. Sugawara doesn’t see it, but he hears Hinata drop his knife on his plate.

After they’ve paid, Sugawara says, “This was fun. I think they really fell for it.”

“Yes, I think so too. We should do it again sometime, if you’re free.”

Sugawara is a little surprised. But he is also interested to see just how far they can take this before Hinata and Kageyama catch on. “Yeah, of course. What’s your number?”

They exchange phone numbers and agree that they can text each other to come up with another plan to get together. Then they stand up and prepare to leave. As they do, Oikawa put his hand on Sugawara’s shoulder. Hinata knocks over his glass this time.

Both of them pretend not to hear the commotion and leave, each coming up with various ways they can fool the two who unwisely tried to pull one over on them.

Chapter Text

“Su-Su-S-Su—”

“Sugawara-san!”

Sugawara looks up from his book at Hinata and Kageyama, who have come to find him during lunch. “Yes?”

Hinata’s face is red, and Kageyama keeps glancing briefly at him, then looking away. The shorter boy nudges his friend, who swats at him. “We wanted to…apologize…” he says. Hinata nods furiously.

Sugawara is grinning internally, but on the outside, he does his best to look confused. “What for?”

“The…date…we set you up on.”

This is going to be so fun, the older setter thinks. He pretends to struggle to recall it, as if he’s been on so many dates in the last two days that he can’t remember the one they talked him into. “Oh, yeah, she never showed up.”

They’re quiet for a moment, and then Kageyama, dumbfounded, says, “What?”

“Yeah, but don’t feel bad. Actually, it was a complete coincidence, but I saw Oikawa Tooru there. We ended up talking instead.”

Kageyama is now looking from Hinata to Sugawara, lingering on each for a second or two before switching to the other one. Neither of them look like they know what to say.

“Something wrong?”

“Nope! See you later, Suga-san!” Hinata finally pipes up, grabbing Kageyama’s wrist and dragging him out of the third year’s classroom.

Sugawara chuckles to himself and pulls out his phone.

XXX

“Kageyama, don’t you get it? We’re off the hook!”

“I’m not so sure…”

Hinata crosses his arms over his chest and hunches over a little, making himself even shorter than he normally is. “What aren’t you sure about? He thought Oikawa was there by coincidence.”

Kageyama looks at his feet, trying to figure out why he’s so uneasy. “I just have a bad feeling, somehow. It was weird how they were acting towards each other at the restaurant.”

“Yeah… Well, maybe Oikawa’s not as much of a dick as you thought he was,” Hinata suggests, shrugging.

Kageyama is blank-faced, reflecting on darker times. (Middle school). “Impossible.”

The shorter boy claps his friend on the shoulder. “Stop worrying about it. I’m sure it’s fine.”

XXX

When Sugawara sees Hinata and Kageyama at practice, they’re acting like everything is normal again. Which is excellent, as far as he’s concerned, because it means they’ll be more surprised later. He spends all of practice in good spirits, and it reflects on how he plays. Even the coach remarks on how he seems to be putting in 120% of his effort today, and uses him as the example everyone else should strive for.

Sugawara enjoys practice, but today he’s looking forward to the end of it even more.

Finally, they’re winding down. Everyone’s putting the gym back in order and preparing to clean up the floors. When Sugawara hears the door open, his heart thumps in his chest with excitement.

“Yo, Kou-chan!” Oikawa says.

“Hi, Tooru!”

Hinata is stammering and pointing from Oikawa to Sugawara and back again. “‘K-K-K-Kou-chan’?! ‘Tooru’?!”

“Hinata, it’s rude to point,” Sugawara says calmly. But he’s savoring the fact that everyone else in the gym looks floored by Oikawa’s sudden appearance.

“I hope I’m not interrupting your practice,” Oikawa says, sounding sincere.

“We were just finishing up. You can wait outside if you want.”

“Oh, in that case, I’ll help you out.” Oikawa strolls over to a stray volleyball and picks it up, dropping it into the cart Yamaguchi was pushing, before he stopped dead and started ogling the rival setter.

“Everyone, stop looking so surprised. Don’t we have a gym to clean up?” Sugawara chastises the rest of his team, feeling smug. Slowly, everyone resumes what they were doing, though they do it in pairs now and are not above whispering to each other.

Nishinoya passes by Sugawara and, after checking to make sure Oikawa is out of earshot, he whispers to him, “Oi, this guy isn’t blackmailing you or anything, right?”

“No, we’re just friends. He came to hang out with me today. It’s not that strange, is it? We’re both setters, after all.”

Nishinoya leans on his broom handle and stares at Sugawara for a moment, but then he walks away without saying anything else. Apparently, for once, he couldn’t come up with a response.

Sugawara has a similar encounter with Daichi, when he asks what Oikawa is doing here. Sugawara cheerfully responds with the same. Daichi seems confused, but also knows to trust Sugawara’s judgment. Although, it’s clear he is strongly questioning that heuristic now.

Asahi says nothing out loud to him, but gives him a concerned look. Sugawara smiles warmly at him. He seems somewhat reassured, but glances suspiciously at Oikawa anyway.

And of course, Sugawara can hear Hinata and Kageyama arguing in loud whispers from across the gym. Hinata goes stiff and silent when Oikawa pretends to accidentally back into him, apologizes, and then moves away again, winking at Sugawara. Kageyama has to poke Hinata in the ribs to get him to move again.

After a little while, they finish cleaning up the gym and go to change. Oikawa opts to wait for him outside, and then the real round of questioning starts.

“How did you meet that guy?”

“Did he come to gloat about beating us? What a jerk!”

“Is he giving you setter tips? Are you paying him?”

“Are you sure he’s not blackmailing you?”

“What’s with his whole nice-guy act?”

Sugawara pulls his shirt over his head and sighs. “Guys… We met by coincidence and…kind of hit it off. We’re going out, not that it’s any of your business.” Even though it’s pretend, saying it still makes him blush.

“Going out? On a date?”

“Suga, you’re gay?!”

“What the heck, how could you ‘hit it off’ with a guy like him?”

The setter claps his hands together in front of him. “I will not be taking any more questions! See you all later!” He grabs his bag and marches out of the club room.

“Yo,” Oikawa greets him. They walk side-by-side away from the rest of the Kurasuno volleyball team, who are still ogling them through the windows of the club room.

Oikawa looks over his shoulder at them and smiles deviously. He shifts to walk a little closer to Sugawara, letting their hands brush tentatively before he takes his in his own.

Sugawara goes a little red again, only because he’s not used to having his hand held, but he doesn’t pull away. He’s sure he can almost hear yelling coming from behind them, and that makes any kind of mild embarrassment worth it.

“Hey, Sugawara-san, do you like alien movies?” Oikawa asks suddenly. He’s still holding Sugawara’s hand, even though they’ve passed out of the range where they could be seen by Sugawara’s teammates.

“Sure. Why?”

“You want to go see one with me? There’s a new one out that I’ve been wanting to see. Iwa-chan says I get too into them so he won’t go with me anymore.”

Sugawara chuckles. Somehow, Oikawa being an alien fanatic isn’t too hard to believe. It’s kind of endearing. “Yeah, I’ll go.” He’s only got a little bit of homework that he has to do before tomorrow, so it should be fine.

They end up holding hands all the way to the train station, and Sugawara doesn’t really mind. He thinks Oikawa probably forgot they were, but his hand is pleasantly warm and dry, so he sees no reason to break the contact. There aren’t too many people on the walk there anyway, so they don’t even get any weird looks, or if they do, Sugawara doesn’t notice.

The movie is a horrible B-movie, but Sugawara enjoys it anyway, if only because Oikawa seems enraptured and it’s mildly hilarious. He clings to Sugawara’s arm at the ‘scary’ parts and doesn’t even seem to notice he’s doing it, and the rest of the time he’s leaning forward, completely absorbed in the admittedly terrible plot. Sugawara kind of wishes he could take a picture.

Afterwards, they get ice cream and sit on some swings in a nearby park, discussing how to further their prank. Overall, Oikawa is fun to talk to. From all Kageyama had ever said about Oikawa, he seemed to have a persona of ‘charming and funny, but in a fake way; overall, a dangerous kind of guy.’ But Sugawara feels pretty at ease with him, and finds him genuinely charming and funny. Their senses of humor seem to align pretty well, and Sugawara can make him laugh just as much as Oikawa makes him laugh.

They end up staying out until it gets dark, but when they do finally go their separate ways, Sugawara finds he doesn’t regret anything about the afternoon at all.

Chapter Text

A month passes and Sugawara and Oikawa go on several more ‘dates’ to baffle the Karasuno volleyball team. Mostly, Oikawa comes over after practice, making sure to be at least seen by everyone, even if he doesn’t stick around much to talk to them. The shock value and the questions don’t wear off until the fourth time or so, and even then, Sugawara senses that they still aren’t quite sure what to make of it.

A week after the first time Oikawa came to Karasuno, Kageyama had come up to him without Hinata and confessed to setting him up on a date with Oikawa. Sugawara had told him that he knew, of course, but it worked out anyway. He and Oikawa had a lot in common. The younger setter had looked wholly shocked, and offered as justification that Sugawara was so…nice. Sugawara had insisted that Oikawa was, too, and Kageyama had decided to let it go, though he looked conflicted and probably guilty for starting this whole thing.

Sugawara kind of wonders what about it is so strange to everyone. It doesn't seem like it's because they're both guys—no one has said anything homophobic. It seems like they all have this image of Oikawa that isn’t quite accurate. 

Kageyama is the only one (besides Sugawara, now) who's ever spent any time with Oikawa. It's not as if they hate each other, but Kageyama has mentioned some things offhand that don't exactly paint him in the best light. He doesn't think Kageyama means to make anyone think badly of him, but since the team doesn't have any other frame of reference, they interpret it directly.

It took a little bit of gentle persuasion for Sugawara to get an answer from Oikawa, but eventually he had admitted to being jealous of Kageyama's overwhelming skill, and therefore not exactly treating him as a good senpai would. But that was just another thing he and Sugawara could agree on, because it's not as if he hasn't felt jealousy towards Kageyama himself. He thinks if he had been 14 when Kageyama came in and been skilled enough to potentially take his spot, he might have reacted similarly. 

He's doing his best to change everyone's minds about Oikawa by spreading positive stories about him to his teammates. It's pretty easy to do, since every experience they have is a positive one. Sometimes they go hang out and do things that could actually be considered dates, if either of them was interested in the other one that way. They see movies sometimes, get food, walk around shopping districts and look at stuff. Other times they just do homework at one or the other's houses, while talking and laughing. 

This weekend, Oikawa even invited him to come to a special Saturday game his team was having once, and Sugawara got to meet all the team members he'd been hearing so much about. Now everyone else has left and they're sitting in the park on the swings.

"Kou-chan," Oikawa says after a short silence. Aside from their first meeting, they've never called each other by their last names. They figured it made sense since they were pretending to date, and it was too much trouble to switch back and forth when they were around people not in on the prank and in private.

"Mm?"

"I think on Monday we should break up in front of your team."

The suggestion throws Sugawara a little off-guard, and it leaves him with his eyebrows drawn together and the corners of his mouth pulled in. Why, though, he can't be sure. They're not actually dating. This whole thing was a prank. He hasn't forgotten that, and clearly Oikawa hasn't either. He shouldn't be at all opposed to ending it. "Oh?" is all he can manage. He resolves to sort out the slightly sick feeling in his stomach so he can give a better answer to Oikawa's next reply.

"Well, yeah. It's not a good prank if it doesn't have a good end. I think it'll make Tobio-chan and Hina-chan feel really guilty about setting us up in the first place. Especially if we do it on Monday, because then they'll think you'll be suffering through it for a whole week and it'll be really awful."

Sugawara's swing has lost height, but he keeps going. It's hard to look at someone when you're on a swing, and right now, for some reason, he doesn't want to see Oikawa's face. "Why do you only say they'll think I'll be suffering?"

"I think I should break up with you. They probably care more about your happiness than they do mine. If you think about it, they were planning to set you up with someone, not me. You are the main character here."

"I guess that's true," Sugawara says, ignoring the way the sick feeling has spread up to his chest. "What will we even say to each other? It seems like we get along pretty well." That's actually true, he thinks.

"I have an idea, but I think it'll be better if I don't tell you. The acting is more real that way. It'll be really good though, I promise."

"Okay, tomorrow then," Sugawara says.

XXX

Sugawara spends the entirety of the next day growing more and more anxious. The only possible reason for it could be that he doesn't want the prank to end, and once he realizes that, it's pretty easy to figure out the rest.

He actually likes Oikawa.

The realization hits him in the middle of the day, during lunch, when Asahi politely asks him how Oikawa is doing. He thinks about what Oikawa said yesterday, thinks about what will happen in a few hours, how against it he is. Because it means Oikawa will stop being a part of his life. He tells Asahi that Oikawa is fine, and then he excuses himself to go to the bathroom.

The rest of the school day, he barely pays attention, trying to reason with himself. Oikawa is so casual instigating anything with him, it doesn't seem at all likely that he could return Sugawara's feelings. If he did, he certainly wouldn't have suggested they break off their fake relationship, he would have suggested they start a real one.

School ends and he has to go to practice, and the event he's dreading draws closer. He feels like a man on death row, trapped while he waits for the inevitable. The only thing he can think of doing is telling Oikawa before he fake-breaks up with him, but how would that even go? He keeps thinking himself in circles, not wanting to lose Oikawa in his life, but not able to think of a way to make him stay.

Throughout practice, he's a mess. His sets and receives are terrible, and he has to repeat nearly every drill. He can feel everyone watching him, wondering why he's so out of it today, and he has no explanation to offer them. Coach pulls him aside and asks him if he's feeling sick or something, if he wants to go home. Yes, he thinks desperately, I do. But he shakes his head for some reason.

Maybe it would be better to just let it end. He's probably liked Oikawa for longer than just when he realized it earlier today, but if it did take him this long to figure it out, maybe it'll be easier to forget this once it's over.

Oikawa shows up as they're about done cleaning up the gym, and the knots in Sugawara's body tighten all at once. He forces himself to pull himself together and walks over to him. "Hey, come help us clean up," he says, offering a smile that doesn't quite fill out over his face.

"Can I talk to you? Out here?"

It's easy to make himself look concerned, given the tone of voice Oikawa uses and the way his expression is set—subdued, not his usual bubbly self. As if something is actually wrong. "Sure." Sugawara swallows. His teammates weren't looking at them before, having gotten used to Oikawa coming over, but now he can feel their eyes on his back. 

"What's up?" he asks, when they're a little way away from the gym, but not too far, so they can be heard, of course. Sugawara hates it. He hates this prank.

"My ex-girlfriend texted me today," Oikawa says, a little louder than he needs to. His voice probably carries over to the gym, and if anyone is trying to listen, they might be able to hear it.

Sugawara stares at him. This was his plan? It's an awful plan. "Okay?" he says slowly.

Oikawa isn't looking at him, but past him, rather. Sugawara can see him fidgeting with his hands inside his jacket pockets. "She said she missed me. She wants to get back together."

Sugawara can't figure this out. Does he want everyone to think he's some kind of huge asshole? "I don't know what I'm supposed to say to that," he says quietly.

Oikawa glances towards the door of the gym very briefly, checking to see if anyone is watching. Apparently they're not. He whispers, "You have to yell at me or they won't know."

Sugawara stares some more. He'd known Oikawa was attractive before, of course. It was kind of a thing you learned once and from then on just generally accepted, like grass being green and water being wet. Sugawara always thought of his looks as being more angular, more traditionally masculine, which is the kind of guy he's always tended to look at. It's true of his chin and his nose, maybe even his lips, but Oikawa's got a softness to his features other features that's a little different than that. His eyes are rounder, and his pupils are naturally large even though it's light out. His cheeks don't quite have the look of full maturity yet, still a little round and plump.

He swallows. He doesn't want to yell at someone like this. He doesn't want to yell at Oikawa, but he doesn't want to think about how he can't have him either. So yelling becomes the better option. "Okay! So go date her again, I don't care what you do!" He feels his face crack with his voice, his eyes growing wet as the skin around them heats up. He heard the footsteps as his teammates gathered around the door at his sudden outburst. 

Sugawara starts to turn off towards the club room, walking quickly. He knows Oikawa probably wanted to make more of a scene than this, but he can't manage it, and he doesn't care anymore anyway. It doesn't even matter, since this is going to be the end.

"Koush—"

"Go home, Tooru," he shouts back over his shoulder. Once he's out of sight, he runs the rest of the way. It's dark in the club room, and he leaves it that way as he finally reaches up to wipe his eyes.

Chapter Text

As if things hadn’t sucked enough since the Suga thing, at practice on Wednesday, Oikawa accidentally serves a volleyball into Yahaba’s face. It becomes a big affair with everyone crowding around the other setter, whose nose is bleeding and bruised, with the promise of further purpling in the hours to come. His white shirt is now a good portion red, along with the polished wood underneath him. When Oikawa helps him up, scrambling to apologize as profusely as he can while his ears are pounding, he nearly slips on his own blood. The whole thing isn’t pretty.

Practice is canceled so the coach can take Yahaba to the hospital, since his nose looks pretty broken and the school nurse has already left for the day. Oikawa wants to come and make sure he’s okay, but that request is denied. Coach doesn’t want to deal with his hysterics. One teenager leaking from the face is enough for him. Yahaba does promise to text him (“I’ll tegd you”), so he clutches his phone desperately as he walks to the train station with Hanamaki and Iwaizumi, checking the screen every twenty seconds even though there’s no way they’ve even gotten to the hospital yet.

“So,” Hanamaki says, breaking the silence. “That was fun.”

“It was awful, Makki-chan! I won’t stand for you taking pleasure in his pain,” Oikawa half-wails.

“I think we’re all just taking pleasure in your pain, since you seemed to be more upset about it than he did,” Iwaizumi points out.

Oikawa goes quiet with solemnity and checks his phone again. The silence settles back on them, more uncomfortable now that Oikawa hasn’t had the last word.

“What’s up with you?” Iwaizumi asks after a bit longer, gruffness of voice hiding a deeper layer of concern.

Oikawa throws his hands up in front of him, careful not to throw his phone with them. “I just hit my precious kouhai in the face and broke him. Did you see all that blood? Did you see his face?”

“You’ve been acting weird this week.”

Hanamaki is glancing sideways at them both, pretending to be disinterested.

“It’s nothing,” Oikawa mumbles out. This earns him a smack on the back of the head from Iwaizumi. “Iwa-chan! You can’t just bully people until they talk to you about their deep dark secrets! Are you sure you even want to know? What if I’m lying to protect you? What if I’m in trouble with the yakuza?” He wiggles his fingers to indicate “yakuza trouble” and checks his phone again.

Iwaizumi is clenching his fist and gritting his teeth. He’s saved from having to hit Oikawa again by Hanamaki. “Hey, Oikawa, what happened to that Sugawara guy from Karasuno?” He manages to ask it without smiling or indicating that he’s onto him, though internally he is both of those things.

“Ahh, Makki-chan, you irritating little blister!” Oikawa claps him on the back harder than is necessary, apparently not having gotten his fill of injuring his teammates today. “I have no idea. We stopped with the prank last Friday. Had a big blowout in front of his team. It was very heart-wrenching. I haven’t heard from him since.” The more he adds to his explanation, the more transparent he feels, but he can’t stop himself from letting it out.

“That was a prank?” Iwaizumi asks, looking puzzled.

“Iwa-chan, I told you all. It was just pretend to get back at his teammates.” Oikawa clicks the button on the side of his phone again, in vain. There are no messages. It had just been pretend, which had been the problem. Somewhere along the way he had actually developed real feelings for Suga, which lead to his formation of two concurrent plans: ask Suga out for real, or propose they break up before the feelings got any worse. He meant to go with the former that day at the park, but an uncharacteristic panic had seized him and he had accidentally let loose the wrong plan. At that point, he felt locked in, and it was too late to go back.

Part of him felt like he had been dishonest enough for even imagining privately that their relationship was real. For the way his heart started to beat faster whenever they held hands, or even when Suga smiled at him. It felt like he was taking advantage of the situation, so maybe it was better that it was over.

He’d considered for a bit that they could be friends afterwards, but after the fake breakup he had texted Suga asking how it went and had only gotten a simple “You were very convincing.” Oikawa had tried to continue the conversation, but Suga’s answers had been short and disengaging, so he figured Suga was too busy to interact with him anymore. He had mentioned a couple of times while they were hanging out that he wasn’t used to spending so much of his free time not studying or doing chores. Oikawa had just been distracting him from the things that were probably more important to him.

“Hmm. That’s a shame, I liked him,” Iwaizumi says.

Oikawa sighs and checks his phone.

XXX

On Friday, a few things happen after practice. Matsukawa suddenly remembers a very, very important gift he has for Oikawa in his desk. This gift absolutely cannot be given on Monday, he insists. He also doesn’t want to go alone because empty classrooms freak him out, which is news to Oikawa, but he goes anyway. The gift turns out to be a pencil, and not even a new one. Oikawa has noticed him using this particular pencil (blue, with little bear faces on it) every so often. But apparently Matsukawa thinks he should have it, so he tucks it into his pocket and doesn’t think about it.

As they’re going out into the hallway, they spot Hanamaki and Iwaizumi, which strikes Oikawa as a little weird, but he doesn’t think much about it either. Iwaizumi’s leaning against a closet door wearing a weird face, which is only somewhat unusual. Oikawa’s just about to tease him for looking constipated when Matsukawa grabs him, Iwaizumi moves off the door, Hanamaki jerks it open, and they shove him inside.

“What the—oof!” Oikawa collides with something soft. The soft thing is a person, and the person is Sugawara Koushi.

Before he can get up and get off, he hears a key turning in the lock outside. “We’ll be back in 20 minutes!” Matsukawa sings through the door.

“You guys can’t do this! This is kidnapping!” Oikawa yells back, flinging himself against the door.

“I tried that card already,” Suga says, sounding bored.

“Kou-chan, if we make enough noise, maybe someone will hear us. Help! HELP!” Oikawa yells, banging his hands against the door.

“Tooru, stop it. You’re giving me a headache. They’re coming back in 20 minutes and they’ll let us out.”

Oikawa turns around. Suga is very close in the small space, leaning against the back shelves littered with cleaning supplies. Oikawa presses himself against the door. They’ve been close before, but not front to front, usually side to side. Something about having more of his surface area facing Suga in close proximity makes him even more nervous.

“I’m sorry, I don’t know why they’re doing this. How did they even get you to come over here?”

“Hanamaki-san texted me and said—” Suga swallows. “He texted me. It doesn’t matter. I kind of thought they might be trying to do something like this.”

“Makki-chan’s connections run deep,” Oikawa says sagely, nodding, trying to keep things light despite the grim situation. Suga doesn’t seem amused. “I’m really sorry they’re doing this,” he tries more seriously.

Suga crosses his arms and fixes Oikawa with an unusually hard stare. “Maybe we should talk, since that seems to be what they want.”

“Sure.” Now Oikawa swallows. “How did your team react?” It’s the only thing he can think of to talk about. Suga’s face contorts slightly.

“They bought it.”

“Oh, good. I guess it was a good prank then.” Oikawa picks at his nails. He can barely see Suga with only the light from the frosted glass of the closet window coming in, but he can still pick out all the features he’s memorized. The soft curve of his eyelashes, the subtle point of his nose, the sharp point of his mole, dark against his skin, framed by his silver hair.

Suga starts to say something and doesn’t even get a full word out before he stops. Oikawa is distracted by the shape of his lips. He watches his eyes as they look towards the broom in the corner. “It was a bad prank.”

Oikawa mentally shakes his concentration. “What do you mean?”

Suga bites his lip. “It didn’t feel like a prank.”

Vaguely, Oikawa is aware of his heart pounding a little faster. Had Suga noticed his feelings even though he hadn’t chose to share them? Had they come through somehow anyway? “I wasn’t trying to—” he begins. “I’m sorry.”

Suga’s hands are clenched where he’s holding them under his arms, and he still doesn’t look at Oikawa. “It’s okay, I knew you didn’t feel the same.”

What a strange way to phrase it. Too strange for Oikawa to ignore. “Wait, what does that mean?”

Suga looks at him now, eyes fierce and shining. “Don’t make me say it.”

“I think you have to say it because I’m clearly missing a piece here,” Oikawa returns slowly.

“I like you,” Suga bites out barely as he finishes speaking. He bites his lip, face cinched tightly as if he wishes he could have kept the words locked inside himself.

Oikawa goes for his hand, but it’s clamped tightly under his arm, so he grabs that instead. “Kou-chan. Kou-chan, I’m—what?” Suga shakes his head. “You mean like for real, not just as a prank? Not just as a friend?”

“Yeah!” he shouts.

“Wait, ‘yeah’ as in as a prank or friend, or ‘yeah’ as in not like that?” Oikawa is desperate for clarification since he can’t believe the best possible outcome.

As an answer, Suga unlocks his hands and grabs the front of Oikawa’s shirt, haphazardly crashing their lips together for a brief second before he pulls away. He shoves Oikawa aside and twists the door handle, banging his hands against the glass. Oikawa catches them and turns him around, pressing his shoulders to the glass with the weight of his own body. Suga’s lips are clenched tight against his, and he holds his own over them as gently as he can manage while being this tense. He can’t believe what he just heard, what he just felt. He’s still expecting the first kiss was just an accident and he’s going to get slapped for this. But he doesn’t. Eventually Suga’s mouth goes slack, and his lips part, and his teeth scrape against Oikawa’s flesh. He opens his mouth too and slips his tongue into Suga’s. His mouth tastes mostly like warmth, and wetness, and if softness had a flavor, he thinks it would taste like that too. He sighs tilts his head to push in deeper, moving Suga’s wrists up to pin them against the door. He slides his hands up and laces his fingers in between Suga’s, earning an enthusiastic squeeze.

“Tooru,” Suga mumbles against his lips. He breaks his hands free of Oikawa’s and fists them in the back of his jacket, hugging their chests together before kissing him again.

They both lose track of the time and possibly also forget that their time in the closet of the closed school has an expiration date, because when Matsukawa opens the door of the closet, they all but fall out of it, more or less on top of each other. They right themselves and separate, though still standing close together, and bear the weight of Oikawa’s friends’ smug smiles.

“Well, that wasn’t supposed to be seven minutes in heaven, but okay. Whatever gets the job done,” Hanamaki says.

“Don’t ever lock my boyfriend in a closet again,” Oikawa demands of them, gesturing with a stern finger.

“Boyfriend…” Suga muses, subtly sneaking his hand into Oikawa’s. “I think it’s allowed as long as you’re there too, boyfriend.”

Oikawa returns his smile and squeezes his hand.

“We could lock you back in there if you want,” Matsukawa offers, holding up the key.

“Pass,” Suga says. “I’m hungry.”

They start to walk away from The Closet together. Hanamaki, Matsukawa, and Iwaizumi walk ahead, giving them some space while congratulating themselves on their superior matchmaking skills, despite not really having done anything.

“So what are you going to tell your team this time?” Oikawa asks, squeezing Suga’s hand.

He hums in thought a little. “I think they deserve to know the whole story.”