Work Text:
Tooru
Forget about the world with me tonight
Sent at 21:48
Forget about the world.
Really?
Sent at 21:48
You know what I mean
Sent at 21:48
Run away with me for tonight, Tsumu-chan
Sent at 21:49
Pfft
Okay fine
Where do I meet you?
Sent at 21:49
Downstairs
Look outside your window
Sent at 21:51
Oikawa Tooru is an idiot. That’s the first thing that Atsumu wants to tell the world when he receives the brunet’s latest message.
Oikawa Tooru you idiot.
He scrambles out of bed, the cold floor sending a shiver running down his spine when his bare feet touch the ground. Atsumu doesn’t bother putting on his slippers and goes to the window of his room to do exactly what Tooru told him to.
He looks outside.
“Tsumu-chan!”
Though muffled by their distance, Atsumu hears Tooru’s voice loud and clear. He stops the smile that threatens to show on his face and shakes his head at the figure standing outside his apartment – beaming and waving his arms from side to side. His gaze softens at the sight, amber eyes catching the light from the buildings outside.
Tooru is wearing clothes too light for the autumn weather, but sweat is trickling down his face. He probably just ran from his place to here – stupid.
Atsumu glances at the brunet out his window one last time then turns around to get dressed.
++ 22:01 ++
When Tooru said run away, Atsumu didn’t count on going to a bar. He hasn’t been in one for the longest time – never finding the urge to, even after breaking up with his boyfriend of two years – and hasn’t found a reason to step foot inside one either. Then Tooru admits the same; he’s avoided bars for the longest time, afraid of meeting new people. Afraid of being hit on and falling too hard, too fast.
(This was a bad move, Atsumu can tell. It’s just brining back bad memories for both of them.)
“Is this your ‘run away with me’ plan, Tooru?”
When Atsumu says his name, the ru curls in a way Tooru never gets tired of hearing. If only it wasn’t such a strange request, he would’ve had the blond saying his name every time he says something when he’s around.
“No,” he answers, “just the start – I felt like visiting this place again since it’s been a while.” Tooru takes a sip of his drink, wrinkles his nose, then adds: “Not as nice as I remember it to be, though.”
Atsumu snorts. “Well, we don’t really belong here do we?”
In Tooru’s too-light clothing and Atsumu’s layered sweater-blazer ensemble, they really don’t. Instead, they stick out like two men nearing their thirties who have no idea what to wear in bars nowadays, even when they’ve barely hit the halfway mark to that age. But Tooru doesn’t seem to care about that fact. Hell, the wrinkling of his nose was for the drink he’d ordered – not the place they were in. Still, he agrees. “Not really.”
Atsumu gulps down his martini, the burn of the alcohol spreading warmth down from his throat to his chest. “We probably got used to our boyfriends breathing down the back of our necks every time.” He motions the bartender for another one. “We couldn’t even go here even if we wanted to – not even to meet up.”
Tooru laughs. “When mine told me that he didn’t like seeing the two of us together, I knew I should’ve broken up with him then and there.”
“Aw, you’d do that?” Atsumu coos, “I probably wouldn’t have.”
“We aim to please.” Tooru grins at him, saying words that hit close to home. He isn’t wrong at all, in fact they’re similar in that aspect – selfishly prioritizing others over themselves. He raises his empty glass in mock toast, “To not doing that anymore.”
Atsumu smiles wryly. As if that’ll ever happen. Still, he raises his own and clinks glasses together with the brunet.
“To not doing that anymore.”
++ 22:34 ++
After five-no-six drinks, Tooru and Atsumu are a tumbling mess. They stumble across the street, giggling and muttering apologies when they bump into people who give them strange looks as they go. Whatever Tooru might’ve planned today has been immediately ruined by their current state of piss drunk and, honestly, he doesn’t mind that at all.
“You know what we should do?” Tooru’s voice is higher than normal in his drunken state, and this causes Atsumu to sputter and laugh.
“What?” he prompts in between laughter. Tooru mirrors the expression on his face, eyes glinting and cheeks turning redder than it already is.
“We should go to places where our,” he pauses and motions that he wants to burp, but when nothing comes out, he continues – “our exes used to take us to. Make new memories and-and forget the ones we made with them.”
Atsumu bobs his head up and down, “’yer right.” The heavier part of his accent slips, and Tooru almost, almost gives in to the urge of asking him to say his name. Atsumu slings a hand over Tooru’s shoulders. “So, where to first?”
Tooru does not cry when they revisit the spot where his ex first said I love you.
He holds onto Atsumu’s offered hand instead, latching onto it like a lifeline. One that seems like he won’t be letting go of anytime soon. It gets uncomfortable for the blond at some point, but he doesn’t complain. He lets Tooru hold on for as long as he needs to.
Because he does the same when they pass by an expensive restaurant he’d spent hard-earned money for. “It was an anniversary surprise,” he explained while Tooru calmed him down by brushing his thumb as they held hands.
“Let’s go inside,” Tooru says, “have dinner here. I’ll pay.”
(The memory doesn’t disappear that easily.)
(It resurfaces, in fact, and he almost drops his fork and knife when he remembers. But Tooru is the one sitting across him now – face still funnily flushed, eyes worried, and smile hesitant. The brunet asks if he’s okay, and Atsumu answers with an affirmative.)
(Surprisingly, it’s true.)
++ 23:47 ++
By the time they wind up inside Tooru’s apartment uptown, they’ve scoured the city of places they’ve been to with their significant others who’ve left them. (“The night hasn’t ended,” Tooru had insisted, “don’t go back yet.”) Atsumu sobers up mid-way after hitting a pole when he refused to not walk by Tooru’s side, while the brunet had to find an empty alley to empty the contents of his stomach in. It wasn’t really a pleasant sight, so Atsumu turned away when it happened.
The second they get through the door, Tooru makes a run for the bathroom and promptly does the same thing he’d done in the alley.
“Are ‘ya good over there, Tooru?” Atsumu lingers outside the closed bathroom, pretending to ignore the sounds coming from inside. He’s not going to imagine the brunet puking his guts out – that’s just disgusting. “I’m right out here if you need anything.”
“I’m—” He can hear Tooru’s heavy breaths. “—fine. It’s good. Just let me rinse my mouth.”
Atsumu huffs out a laugh. “A’ight.” He moves away and makes himself comfortable in the living room, nursing his still-throbbing head. He can already feel the bump forming from earlier – not good… With a sigh, Atsumu walks from the living room the small kitchen area of Tooru’s place and opens his freezer for a cool pack.
“Tsumu-chan?”
Atsumu cranes his neck to see Tooru walking towards him. He flashes the brunet a smile. “Hey. Just getting myself something for the pole accident earlier.” Then closes the fridge after getting what he needed. He presses the cool pack on his forehead, wincing a little when the cold touches his skin.
Tooru lets out a pfft sound. “Accident?”
To which Atsumu responds by giving him a heatless glare. “Accident.”
++ 23:57 ++
After everything that happened, the pair had nothing better to do than to lounge around in Tooru’s living room. Atsumu swears if they do anything more than rest, he won’t hesitate to empty his bowels all over the brunet’s clothes – which may or may not be a joke; Tooru can’t tell. Atsumu did look serious though. So they share a couch, lying opposite from each other. Resting.
Then, in the middle of mindlessly scrolling through his phone, Tooru looks up. “You didn’t forget did you?”
Atsumu furrows his brows, clearly asking forget what with the expression on his face. Tooru’s face goes from bored to are you serious? He stares at the blond in disbelief, leaving Atsumu even more clueless than he already is.
“W-What, is it some sort of friendsaversary for us or something? We never celebrated those…” Atsumu says with just a little bit of nervousness. Seriously, what the hell is he forgetting? “Did you get promoted in your job and today was actually a celebration…? Tooru?”
Tooru’s lips part wordlessly. Then-“Wow. You don’t check the calendar do you?”
“Hey, I do!” Atsumu sputters, “I just forgot what’s going on today-or tomorrow-or something…did I miss something important?”
This time around, Atsumu feels like calling himself an idiot.
Embarrassing.
Tooru chuckles, eyes wrinkling and grin infectious. Atsumu can’t bring himself to grin too, though – he still has no idea what the hell’s going on.
++ 00:00 ++
Then Tooru’s phone begins to ring – a cheerful tone playing loud enough to fill the entire living room. Tooru hits snooze, slides of the couch and pads to the kitchen where he opens the fridge and takes out a box with a candle taped on top. At first, Atsumu thinks what the hell? Is it Tooru’s birthday? Then it dawns to him that it isn’t July but October.
“Oh.”
Tooru places the box on his coffee table and lifts the lid up. He pops the candle right at the center of the cake and uses a gas lighter to light the candle up. “I knew you’d end up forgetting your birthday,” he says, “though the surprise didn’t go as planned – I was supposed to take you out somewhere else instead of running around town.”
Atsumu shakes his head and hides his face with his hands. “I can’t believe I forgot my own birthday.”
“I’m sure Samu-chan would love to hear about this,” Tooru laughs, “should I tell him as a present?”
“Don’t you dare!” Atsumu peeks through the gaps between his fingers, “I get enough teasing from him.” He brings down his hands after a while; when he’s sure that his cheeks aren’t tinged red and his lips stopped trembling. “Uh – thanks.”
Tooru smiles, the light from the candle casting shadows on his face. He looks pretty like this – in a barely-lit room with a warm glow cast on him, but Atsumu doesn’t say. Tooru pushes the cake closer to him, “Make a wish.”
Atsumu bites back his comment (I’m not a kid anymore) and leans down to blow the light out.
He closes his eyes, takes in a breath, then thinks:
I wish to always have you.