Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

It was a just couple of weeks after graduation, and countless things were different. The routines that were once followed without fail had lost their cause. There were no practices, no games, no familiarity of the gym and team that helped grow Oikawa into who he had become.

Not being in a school volleyball club anymore felt like the end of an era. The past three years at Seijoh had flown by, stopping for nothing and no one.

And now Oikawa was ready to leave his high school losses behind him so that he could move into the next phase of his life. But before he did that, he needed a win.

And not just any win.

He wanted Iwaizumi’s heart. He wanted his love; the kind that came with the promise of a shared future, despite any distance that might come between them. A love that meant going separate ways for a while to follow their dreams would always lead back around to being together again—no matter what. 

He wanted to take on the challenge of a long distance relationship involving the person he was in love with before he left the country. It felt like it was now or never.  

And he was pretty sure that he already had the heart of his best friend. He would almost be willing to bet that he’d had it for a long time—years, even.

But Iwaizumi was being stubborn as hell; he wouldn’t confess to him. It made Oikawa wonder if he should just be the one to confess. All things considered, that would be the easiest way.

The easiest way?

When had Oikawa Tooru ever settled for easy?

Never. 

So no way, he wouldn’t be the one to confess—it had to be Iwaizumi. And that meant only one thing: he was going to make Iwaizumi confess. But he needed help to pull it off, and there were two very specific people he had in mind who were perfect for the job.

That’s precisely why he had walked to Makki’s house at six o’clock on a Friday morning.

Once he reached the front door, he pulled out his phone and dialed Makki’s number—because texting wouldn’t be annoying enough to wake him up, and it was too early to be ringing the doorbell. Makki’s mother was probably awake, and his sisters might be up already as well. But his father was definitely still sleeping. And hell hath no fury like a member of the Hanamaki family when pulled from sleep against their will. That included Makki, of course. He was sure to be grumpy about the wake up call. But no reward came without risk. 

As to be expected, the first phone call went to voicemail.

And so did the second one.

Regardless, Oikawa hung up and tried again. He wasn’t going to stop calling until Makki answered. When it came to battles of persistence, Oikawa always emerged victorious.

After several more attempts, the line finally connected to the sound of someone groaning out of frustration.

But it wasn’t Makki.

It was Mattsun, which wasn’t a surprise at all—those two were practically glued together. And it seemed like Mattsun had taken on the Hanamaki family’s lack of appreciation for being woken unexpectedly.

After what had been an impressively long and irritated groan, he finally communicated with words. 

“What do you want?”

Oikawa smiled. “Good morning, Mattsun! I was trying to reach Makki, but you’ll do just fine.”

“Always nice to be the backup option,” Mattsun deadpanned. “Why are you calling so early? You know we’re heavy sleepers around here.”

After chuckling at the way Mattsun made it seem like he was an actual member of the Hanamaki household, Oikawa responded casually. “If no one answered, I would’ve climbed up to the window and let myself in. I know the lock doesn’t work.”

“You get creepier every time I talk to you,” Mattsun responded. “But I love you for it.”

Oikawa nodded cheerfully as he replied. “Well, I am very lovable.” 

“Seriously though, what do you want? I’d like to go back to sleep,” Mattsun grumbled, followed by a yawn. 

“There’s no time for sleep, Mattsun! I need you and Makki to help me with something important. Come down and unlock the door, or I really will climb up to the window and let myself in.”

Another yawn came across before Mattsun replied. “You’re welcome to climb through the window, then. Good luck.”

The line cut out after that, and Oikawa glared at his phone for a moment.

But he wasn’t deterred at all.

He flipped his hair and stomped right over to the outside wall of the house, just below Makki’s window, which was on the second floor.

Then he started to assess how he was going to climb it. There were no trees close enough to be helpful, but he thought he might be able to reach the edge of the roof below the window if he got a running start and jumped for it.

Nodding to himself with unfounded confidence, he walked to the edge of the yard, and then ran towards the house.

He jumped when he reached the wall and barely got high enough to grab the gutter, which didn’t feel like it could hold his weight for very long. He huffed as he tried to pull himself up, but it was harder than he expected.

He let out a long, frustrated sigh as he dangled from the edge of the roof. If only he had gotten a better grip, then he could have done it with ease. At least, that’s what he told himself.

The sudden sound of Mattsun’s laughter made Oikawa turn his head.

There on the porch of the house stood Mattsun, who was holding his phone up, heartlessly taking a picture of Oikawa’s predicament.

“Geez, I didn’t think you’d really do it. That’s hilarious. Should I send this to Iwaizumi?”

Oikawa dropped down from the roof with a thud and brushed his hands off on his pants, then gave Mattsun a serious look, matching his tone. “Don’t send it to him! This is a secret visit, he can’t know about it!”

Mattsun raised an eyebrow and tilted his head. “Is that right? Well, now I’m curious. So I guess you can come inside through the door. That is, unless you want me to boost you up so you can reach the window.”

Oikawa rolled his eyes, then followed Mattsun into the house.

He waved at Makki’s mother—who was the only early riser in the Hanamaki family—as they passed by the living room. She gave a friendly nod in response. Oikawa was familiar with (and well liked) by both of Makki’s parents.

In fact, he was well liked by the parents of all of his friends, which was obviously because of his natural charm, and not at all because he was a total schmoozer. 

Once Oikawa was inside Makki’s bedroom, he jumped on the bed and landed right on top of Makki, which was fully intentional.

“Wakey-wakey, Makki! I need your big brain!”

Makki angrily shoved a pillow at Oikawa, pushing him off the bed with it. He was full of that Hanamaki Family Fury that hell hath none of. “Don’t come into my bedroom at this ungodly hour and try to butter me up with flattery.” 

“I’m serious, bitch. I came for that Makki-style big brain energy. But how dare you push me off the bed like that? I was your captain until just a few weeks ago. I deserve some respect,” Oikawa said as he got up off the floor, crossing his arms with a dramatic huff. “And you act like we didn’t wake up even earlier than this for literal years back when we were still in school.”

“Exactly. I did my time, and now I deserve to sleep in,” Makki grumbled, pulling his blanket up over his head, which hid him entirely.

Mattsun chuckled and sat on the bed beside his grouchy boyfriend. Then he started rubbing Makki’s back in an attempt to peacefully wake him. “Oikawa’s got something super secret to tell us about, apparently.”

That information seemed to interest Makki enough to rouse him. He peeked one eye out from under the blanket, staring at Mattsun rather than Oikawa.

“How secret are we talking?”

“He didn’t want Iwaizumi to know he’s here,” Mattsun replied, glancing at Oikawa with a playful grin and an eyebrow wiggle. 

“Interesting,” Makki said as he sat up and rubbed his eyes. Then he looked at Oikawa expectantly. “Well, tell me your secret, and don’t leave anything out. No detail’s too small.”

Oikawa squeezed onto the bed with Makki and Mattsun. Or rather, he squeezed right between them, which almost pushed Mattsun off the bed.

“I want Iwa-chan to confess to me, but I’m not sure how to make him do it.”

Makki instantly looked more alert, and a devious smile crossed his lips. “I’ve been waiting so long for this day! Issei, darling, please fetch me the notebook.”

As requested, Mattsun got up and went over to Makki’s desk. He started digging through one of the drawers, grinning more mischievously than Oikawa had seen in quite a while, which made him immediately suspicious of his friends’ intentions.

“What notebook?” Oikawa asked as he narrowed his eyes. “And why am I getting a bad feeling?”  

“That’s not a bad feeling,” Makki said. “It’s just excitement. Learn the difference.”

At that point, Mattsun pulled out a green notebook and handed it to Makki, who started flipping through it with an even more mischievous grin than Mattsun was still wearing. 

“This is his ‘IwaOi’ notebook,” Mattsun said matter-of-factly, sitting back down on the edge of the bed. 

Oikawa let out a hum, giving a hesitant smile as he looked at the notebook in Makki’s hands. “Wow... I’m kind of delighted right now, but also a little disturbed. What is this thing, exactly?”

“What it is, my dear friend, is a book that’s gonna solve your problem. I happen to have lovingly made this over the last three years. It’s all my different guesses about how, and when, you and Iwaizumi would end up together,” Makki said proudly. “And there’s three whole pages of ‘ways Oikawa would force Iwaizumi to confess to him.’ ”

Oikawa’s mouth was hanging open as he processed what he had just been told. It was a whole ten seconds before he responded.

“Makki... I can’t believe you did this for me... I’ve never been more proud of how someone chose to use their free time. So, lay some of these ideas on me!”

Makki cleared his throat, beginning to speak in a way that was similar to how a professor might lecture a college class. “Hypothesis one: Oikawa spends the whole day around Iwaizumi without a shirt on.”

“He’s seen me without a shirt countless times. If he was gonna fall for that, he already would have,” Oikawa said with an air of impatience. “Next idea.”

It was Mattsun who read the next one, and his voice was similar to someone telling a ghost story. “Oikawa pretends he got confessed to and asks Iwaizumi if he should accept.”

“I literally tried that last month,” Oikawa grumbled, crossing his arms. “Don’t you have anything more creative in your dumb little book?”

Makki took the notebook back from Mattsun, holding it against his chest. “Don’t you dare disrespect the notebook. Believe in it, and believe in me.”

“Fine.” Oikawa rolled his eyes. “What’s the next one?” 

“This one says you’d write ‘I love you’ on a piece of paper, trick Iwaizumi into reading it out loud, then thank him for his confession,” Mattsun said in an amused tone, having read from the notebook over Makki’s shoulder. “That does sound like you.”

“No it doesn’t,” Oikawa argued, scooting back to lean against the headboard of the bed. Then he let out a long and disappointed sigh. “Really, Makki. I have no faith at all in this silly notebook of yours. I honestly expected more from you. Where’s your intelligence when I need it?”

Makki slammed the notebook closed and gave Oikawa a sharp look. “If you’re just gonna sass me first thing in the morning, I’m not gonna help you at all.”

Ignoring that threat, Oikawa grabbed the notebook out of Makki’s hands.

Then he started casually flipping through it.

“Don’t be so dramatic, Makki. I’d still like to look at the rest of them. Maybe your blood sugar’s low, so go eat something while I wade through your brain waste.”

With a loud huff, Makki laid back down, pulling the blankets over his head again. “Issei, will you get me some coffee?”

“I’d like mine black,” Oikawa said without looking up. He had found the right section of the notebook, and he started reading it.

Mattsun took a deep breath. “Anything for the two lovely guys that make my life so interesting.”

“If you’re offering, I’d love some breakfast,” Oikawa remarked as he skimmed over a few pages of the notebook.

“Me too, please,” came Makki’s voice from under the covers.

Mattsun stood up and walked towards the bedroom door. “This isn’t even my house, but sure, I’ll make food. Even though I’m a guest.”

“Y’know, my mom said you’re like her second son. She also said she loves having you around,” Makki said as he peeked his head out from under the blanket. “Almost as much as I love you.”

Oikawa glanced at Mattsun and grinned. “Yeah, we all love you. I want extra bacon.”

Mattsun rolled his eyes and left the room, softly closing the door behind himself.

Meanwhile, Makki pinched Oikawa’s arm. “You’d better act more grateful, or I’m not letting you use any of my ideas.”

“I don’t see copyright symbols anywhere,” Oikawa muttered, ignoring the sting of the pinch so that he could focus on reading the page in front of him. “Besides, I think I just found a winner.”

“Do tell,” Makki demanded as he hurried to sit up again. 

Oikawa pointed to the tenth idea on the second page. “This one.”

“Ah, I see you’re a man of culture,” Makki said with a smirk. “And I do believe we can make that happen as soon as this evening. That is, if you’re ready for it?”

“I was born ready.” Oikawa had a very determined look in his eyes. “Iwa-chan’s totally gonna confess after this—I know it!”

Chapter Text

When that evening arrived, Oikawa was in his kitchen preparing a meal, and things were a bit of a mess. The smoke alarm was going off, the vegetables in the pot on the stove were boiling over, and he had just cut his finger while trying to chop the chunks of tofu he was getting ready to fry.

As expected, Mattsun and Makki were also there, but they had just been watching the disaster unfold without stepping in to help at all.

In Oikawa’s opinion, they were currently a matching set of chaos loving gremlins who were the absolute worst to have around during a time of crisis. He would have smacked them both if he had a second to spare. 

“I think the vegetables are a bit overcooked now, sweetie,” Makki teased as he leaned against Mattsun, who was standing right beside him.

Oikawa huffed loudly and rushed over to shut off the heat under the overflowing pot. Then he began to dig around in the cupboard, looking for a bandage to put on his finger.

“Feel free to step in any time now instead of just standing there like jerks!”

Mattsun chuckled and went over to help Oikawa bandage his finger. “I thought you didn’t want us to. You said, and I quote, ‘I can cook a romantic dinner by myself, so don’t interfere with my methods.’”

“And now we know how big of a lie that was,” Makki said with a grin as he calmly walked over to turn the heat off under the frying pan, which was smoking from having hot oil in it for too long.

Then he opened the kitchen window to air the smoke out of the house.

“I just didn’t think making Iwa-chan his favorite meal was gonna be as romantic if I didn’t do all of it myself,” Oikawa pouted, watching Mattsun wrap a bandage around his finger. 

Meanwhile, Makki went to take over cutting up the tofu, doing so skillfully. “Okay, well he’s not gonna feel motivated to confess if you serve him burnt food. So just leave the cooking in the capable hands of your two favorite friends. What time will he be here, anyway?”

“I told him to come over at eight,” Oikawa replied as he went to take the lid off the pot of very soggy vegetables.

He glared at them, like it was somehow their fault that he had cooked them for way longer than necessary.

Mattsun glanced at the clock, then went to gather some ingredients for broth. “Alright, that means we have thirty minutes to fix this dumpster fire of a meal. Why don’t you go pick out a movie while we handle things here?”

“I already picked out the movie. It’s a very sweet romance flick that Iwa-chan’s gonna get all warm and fuzzy over,” Oikawa said as he moved to look at the dining table with a thoughtful expression.

He debated about putting a fresh bouquet in the middle, but decided it would make it too obvious that he wanted Iwaizumi to confess.

And he didn’t want Iwaizumi to know what he wanted him to do.

He would prefer it if Iwaizumi thought that confessing was his own idea, because otherwise, it wouldn’t feel like a proper win.

“You guys need to leave before Iwa-chan gets here,” Oiakwa said. “So hurry up.”

Mattsun snorted at that, focusing on measuring the ingredients he was putting into the pot of broth on the stove. “Do you want me to hurry, or do you want it to taste good?”

“Both, obviously,” Oikawa replied with a toss of his hair. Then he gestured at the dark pants and black button up shirt he wore. “How’s my outfit?”

“You’re overdressed. He’ll know something’s up,” Makki said as he finished cutting the tofu, beginning to sprinkle potato starch over it.

Then he turned the heat under the frying pan back on and poured in fresh oil.

Meanwhile, Mattsun was cooking the broth that would go along with the agedashi tofu. “Yeah, and what’s with all the black? You look like you’re going to a funeral.”

Oikawa looked down at himself and groaned. “Ugh, you’re right. And I bet Iwa-chan’s gonna show up in sweatpants. I’ll go change!”

After that, Oikawa rushed to his room, quickly peeling out of his dark outfit. He replaced it with his old volleyball sweatpants and a shirt that had three UFOs flying over Godzilla on the front of it. Iwaizumi had gotten that for him, and it wouldn’t hurt to wear it for luck.

Then he stopped in the bathroom to fix his hair and give himself a pep talk, just to boost his own confidence. 

When he finally came back into the kitchen, Mattsun and Makki were well underway in preparing the tofu and broth. It was starting to smell really good, which was a welcomed change from the scent of smoke that had been so heavy in the air just ten minutes earlier.

Luckily, most of the smoke was gone now.

“You’re both miracle workers, and I love you to pieces,” Oikawa said. “But I’m not telling Iwa-chan you helped. It’ll ruin the whole point of the evening.”

“Hmm. You’re really gonna start your relationship based on a lie?” Makki teased, going over to check the tofu that was frying in the pan.

Mattsun chuckled and glanced at Oikawa from where he was continuously stirring the broth. “Yeah, what if he asks you to make it for him all the time?”

Oikawa gave a mocking smirk, leaning his elbows on the counter between himself and his two good friends. “Then you’ll just have to sneak over and make it whenever he asks for it.”

“Wow, that’s a long-term commitment. What do we get out of it?” Mattsun asked, wiggling his eyebrows playfully. “Big tips?”

Before he could answer, Oikawa’s phone chimed from an incoming text.

It was Iwaizumi saying he was on his way over early.

Oikawa let out a surprised noise that sounded a lot like a squeak, then started pacing in circles due to his sudden nervous energy. “Shit, Iwa-chan’s already on his way over. We’ve got less than five minutes. How long until the food’s done?”

“Eeeeh… probably less than five minutes,” Mattsun replied, stirring the broth in a leisurely way, like he had all the time in the world.

Oikawa ran out of the kitchen and went over to the front door, grabbing Makki and Mattsun’s shoes once he got there. He hid them inside a basket by the doorway, placing a couple of books over them so they wouldn’t be visible.

After that, he rushed back into the kitchen, putting his hands on his hips. “You two won’t have time to leave without being seen, so finish cooking, then hide in my bedroom. No—wait. Hide in my mom and dad’s room. If Iwa-chan sleeps over, you might have to stay until we go to bed, and my parents won’t be home until Monday. So you’ll be fine in their room.”

“I’m basically done now.” Makki was just taking the last of the tofu out of the frying pan. “But I don’t wanna hide in your parents’ room. I’d rather be where I can watch how things unfold, since this plan came from my notebook.”

“Same here,” Mattsun said as he shut off the stove, giving his broth one final stir.

Then he walked out of the kitchen at a very slow pace, taking Makki by the hand as he went. They were looking around for somewhere to hide, but there was no sense of urgency coming from either of them.

It was like they were casually browsing an antique store on a lazy Sunday afternoon.

“You guys are creepy for wanting to watch us. What if Iwa-chan ends up kissing me?” Oikawa asked as he irritably followed his two friends into the living room.

They were obviously having fun making things more difficult for him, like the absolute brats they were. 

Makki was still searching for a place to hide, but he paused his efforts to speak in a sarcastic tone. “Oh no, what ever will we do if we see something like that?”

“That would be way too graphic,” Mattsun said with a grin, grabbing Makki’s face and giving him a long, deep kiss. When he pulled back, he winked at Oikawa, speaking in a tone that was just as sarcastic as Makki’s had been. “Our innocence would be gone.”

“Well now you’re just bragging,” Oikawa grumbled as he crossed his arms. “You know what? Fine. If you’re gonna hide in here, you can hide under the coffee table. I’ll just throw a blanket over it.”

“Oh, nice. That’s close enough to hear everything,” Makki teased, flashing an impish grin before he crawled under the short table. 

Then Oikawa tossed a blanket over it, nodding at Mattsun afterwards.

At an agonizingly slow pace, Mattsun went to crawl underneath the coffee table.

But he poked his head back out after less than five seconds. “It’ll get way too hot under here with both of us inside.”

Makki crawled back out and headed towards the corner of the room. “You stay under there, babe. I’ll squeeze in between the edge of the couch and the wall,” he said as he got in position. “Just put some stuff over me.”

Oikawa sighed and went to cover Makki with a thin blanket, putting throw pillows over the top of him.

He stared for a moment, then shook his head. “This is really obvious. Iwa-chan’s gonna see you as soon as he walks in.”

“Nah, just turn out the lights and put some candles around. It’ll add to the mood,” Makki said from beneath the blanket and pillows. His voice was really muffled from all the layers over his body.

Mattsun poked his head out from under the blanket covering his hiding spot. “Will you bring me some chips?”

“Oh, I want chips too,” came Makki’s muffled voice. 

“No. The crunching might give you away,” Oikawa replied as he hurried to turn the lights off.

Then he rushed into the kitchen and pulled candles out of a drawer. After he lit them, he placed one in the kitchen, one on the short table that Mattsun was hiding under, and one on the dining room table that was just outside of the kitchen. And he was just in time.

There was a knock at the front door, and Iwaizumi let himself in almost immediately afterwards. 

Oikawa ran over and threw his arms around him. “You’re here!”

“Yeah, ‘cause you said there’d be food,” Iwaizumi replied dryly as he returned the hug. Then he glanced around, sniffing at the air. “Something smells good. Your parents are out of town, though. Did you actually cook?”

Oikawa didn’t feel like he should lie completely, so he only fudged the truth a little bit. “I went out of my way to make sure you’d have your favorite food for tonight.”

“Wow, thanks,” Iwaizumi said with a slight grin. “That was really thoughtful of you.”

“I’m always thoughtful. This head of mine is full of thoughts twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week,” Oikawa declared, pulling Iwaizumi along towards the kitchen. He was suddenly feeling a little nervous, but he wore a confident smile anyway. “Let’s eat while it’s still hot, and then we can watch a movie.”

At that moment, a loud sneeze came from the living room.

Oikawa quickly covered the sound with a long string of coughs, silently cursing the fact that he had let his annoying friends stay in there. He knew he should have forced them to hide somewhere else.

Next time, he wasn’t going to let them have their way.

But wait—there wouldn’t be a next time. This was going to work out, even if Makki and Mattsun were stacking the odds against him. Iwaizumi was definitely going to confess by the end of the night.

Iwaizumi glanced at Oikawa after the fake coughing fit was over. “You sound like a dying hyena. Are you getting sick?”

“Hm? No, I’m totally fine. I just... breathed in some spit on accident,” Oikawa replied hastily. Then he flashed a bright smile and batted his eyelashes. 

“That’s just what I’d expect from you, dumbass,” Iwaizumi said with a chuckle, going to get himself some tofu and broth.

Then he walked over to the dining table, but once he reached it, he paused to look around.

“Why are all the lights off? And what’s with the candles?”

“I… uh... wanted us to be ready for the movie. It’s a good one, Iwa-chan. I really think you’ll like it.” Oikawa hurried to get himself some food, coming over to stand by Iwaizumi afterwards. “It’s the kind that makes you appreciate the people you care about.”

“Ugh, so it’s some sappy movie? Gross,” Iwaizumi grumbled halfheartedly. Then he sat down at the dining table and began to eat his tofu. 

“You secretly like sappy movies,” Oikawa said as he sat beside Iwaizumi, scooting closer to him. “Don’t even try to deny it.”

Iwaizumi didn’t reply to that. Instead, he was chewing with a solemn expression on his face. It was hard to see clearly when the room was lit only by dim candle light, but he almost looked disgusted as he went to eat more of his food.

Oikawa frowned, feeling confused and hurt. He didn’t think the idea of watching a romantic movie together would upset Iwaizumi so much.

It was discouraging enough to make him let out a very quiet sigh.

Then he started eating some of his own food, but he ended up making the same disgusted face as Iwaizumi. The tofu and broth were way too salty. Disgustingly salty, like someone scooped it right out of the sea. 

Oikawa immediately spat it out, then reached over to grab Iwaizumi’s hand, stopping him from eating any more. 

“Don’t, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa choked, his face still scrunched up from the lingering salty taste that was overwhelming his senses. “It’s so bad. You don’t have to pretend you like it.”

Iwaizumi cleared his throat and slowly set his chopsticks down. Then he scratched the back of his neck, glancing at Oikawa out of the corner of his eye. “It’s not… too bad. I think you gave it a good shot.”

“I didn’t even—”

Oikawa stopped himself. He had almost revealed that he hadn’t been the one to make it, and that would spoil the rest of the plan. He was supposed to get Iwaizumi to confess to him after a homemade dinner and a romantic movie.

Since dinner was a disaster, he would have to put all of his hope in the second part of the plan.

“Let’s just have chips while we watch the movie, Iwa-chan.”

Iwaizumi nodded and stood up, reaching to grab both of their bowls.

However, Oikawa got to them first. “I’ll take these to the kitchen. You just go wait on the couch,” he said. “But don’t turn on the lights! We have to… preserve the movie watching mood.”

Iwaizumi stared at Oikawa and narrowed his eyes suspiciously. “You’re being kinda weird right now. Weirder than usual.”

“I think you meant to say charismatic and charming. I’m always like that, you know,” Oikawa retorted as he went to the kitchen to drop off the dishes.

After staring at Oikawa for another few seconds, Iwaizumi followed behind him to get a glass of water. Then he retreated to the living room.

Meanwhile, Oikawa grabbed two big bags of chips and brought them to the couch, setting one on the low table that Mattsun was hiding under. He curled up against Iwaizumi and opened the other one.

He smiled at the feeling of being so close together, but within seconds, he got distracted by the smell of Iwaizumi’s cologne. It seemed like he was wearing more than usual.

Thankfully, it was a really good scent, so it didn’t matter if it was a little strong. 

“What happened to your finger?” Iwaizumi asked after a moment of silence between them.

Oikawa looked from Iwaizumi down to his finger, which was still bandaged. “Just a little cooking mishap.”

“Maybe you should leave the cooking to other people until you have the chance to take a class or something,” Iwaizumi suggested casually. He grabbed some chips from the open bag. “So are we watching a movie, or what?”

“Oh, right,” Oikawa said as he leaned forward and picked up the remote, though he desperately wanted to expose who had actually messed up the food.

Even if he did burn things sometimes, at least he knew how to measure salt. 

Biting his tongue, he clicked the television on, starting the movie he had so carefully picked out. It would be perfect; it was about two long-time friends that get together. That would send the right message.

In fact, it would be like waving a big sign directly in front of Iwaizumi’s face.

And that sign would say: CONFESS TO ME, YOU STUBBORN BITCH. Meant in the most affectionate way, of course. 

But would it still count as a win if he was using such an obvious ploy?

Suddenly, Oikawa felt a finger poke his arm, and it was on the opposite side of his body from where Iwaizumi was sitting. He glanced down and saw Makki’s arm sticking out from his hiding spot.

Makki was holding his hand out, as if wanting Oikawa to put a chip there. He opened and closed his fingers expectantly, then pointed to where his face was probably located underneath the pile of pillows and blankets.

Oikawa quickly shoved Makki’s hand back under the blanket pile before Iwaizumi could notice, then cleared his throat and spoke without considering his words very carefully.

“People who cook terrible meals don’t deserve chips.”

“Are you saying you wanna punish yourself?” Iwaizumi asked with a chuckle. Then he took the chip bag away. “In that case, I’ll hold onto this.”

“Iwa-chan! Give me some of those,” Oikawa whined, leaning over Iwaizumi’s body to reach for the crinkly chip bag.

He ended up falling on top of Iwaizumi, and the two of them stared at each other silently for several seconds.

At one point, Oikawa could have sworn that Iwaizumi glanced down at his lips.

Seeing that made him blush. He had half a mind to lean down and kiss Iwaizumi, but he didn’t want to be the one to do it first.

As it turned out, he wasn’t even going to get the chance.

The sound of Mattsun loudly sneezing again made them both glance down at the short table in front of the couch. 

“What the hell was that?” Iwaizumi asked as he pushed Oikawa off and leaned forward to pull the blanket up a bit, careful not to knock over the candle that was on top of the short table.

Then he peeked underneath and found Mattsun, who started grinning and waving awkwardly.

Oikawa let out a nervous chuckle. “That’s… weird. So weird. Uh—what are you doing under there, Mattsun?”

Mattsun crawled out from under the table and cleared his throat, glancing around the room, as if perhaps an excuse might somehow be written somewhere for him to read. “Uhm. I was just...”

After a few seconds, Iwaizumi shook his head and sighed wearily. This wasn’t the weirdest thing involving his three friends that he’d had the misfortune of witnessing, so he was immune to being caught off guard by their shenanigans.

“Well, whatever,” he said, shrugging. “You’re right in time for a movie. Want some chips? Oikawa can’t have any, though. He’s punishing himself for being a bad cook.”

At that point, Makki crawled out from the corner between the couch and the wall. “I’d love some chips, too. I’m starving.”

Iwaizumi didn’t even seem surprised. In fact, he looked like he had been expecting that. Wherever there was Mattsun, there was also Makki. 

Oikawa gave Makki a hard stare. “You’re awful. And your noteb—I mean, your brain is awful, too. Awful and stupid.”

Makki ruffled Oikawa’s hair as he passed him, then sat down next to Mattsun, who was already settled in beside Iwaizumi. “Don’t worry, I’ve got plenty more ideas.”

“Ideas for what?” Iwaizumi asked, passing Makki the bag of chips. Then he opened the one that had been sitting on the short table. 

“Nothing,” Oikawa replied grumpily as he crossed his arms.

Everything was ruined now, and he had a sneaking suspicion that Makki and Mattsun were purposely sabotaging things, just for the sake of their own entertainment.

Iwaizumi gently nudged Oikawa with his elbow, tilting the bag of chips towards him. “I think you deserve some for trying... even if your cooking came out kinda bad.”

“Yeah, don’t beat yourself up over your cooking,” Makki said with a sly grin. Then he got a big handful of chips and shoved them all into his mouth at once, making a mess. 

“You’ll get better at it if you practice more,” Mattsun added, leaning forward so that Oikawa could see him wink.

With no intention of responding to the subtle teasing (and unfairly placed blame) from his annoying friends, Oikawa grabbed some chips out of the bag that Iwaizumi held, chomping on them angrily.

The plan had been a total failure.

However, he already knew which idea he was going to try next, and hopefully it would be much more successful. 

Chapter Text

Despite the odd circumstances leading up to it, Iwaizumi had agreed to spend the night at Oikawa’s place after the disappointing dinner fiasco and movie date-turned-casual hang out. Makki and Mattsun had then invited themselves to sleep over as well, seeming particularly unbothered by the turn of events, and suspiciously eager to spend time together as a group. 

The four of them did finish the romance movie, which was hard to take seriously thanks to the endless stream of mocking commentary from a certain pink-haired brat and his caterpillar-eyebrowed boyfriend. 

After that, they stayed up late reminiscing about old times and laughing over jokes at each others’ expense, though Oikawa found himself to be the target most often. 

Yep. Some things never change. 

And once Oikawa got over his initial disappointment about not winning Iwaizumi’s confession—though he would be winning that confession eventually, no matter what—he actually had a lot of fun with his three closest friends.

It was always a good time when they were all together. That was something he would really miss when he moved to Argentina; it was another addition to the long list of upcoming changes in his life now that high school was over and destiny was calling him.

He knew that he had to chase his dreams more extremely if he wanted to catch them, and he was feeling intense pressure from trying to accomplish the one change he wanted the most, which was a romantic shift in the relationship between Iwaizumi and himself. 

All of that pressure came from needing Iwaizumi’s confession to happen within the next couple of months. Oikawa would be leaving for Argentina soon. His flight was less than ten short weeks away, and each day that passed brought him closer to running out of time. 

And that pressure was also completely Iwaizumi’s fault, since he was being so needlessly stubborn. Coughing up a confession shouldn’t be such a dragged out ordeal.

All he had to do was say three little words, and he even had several vocabulary combinations to choose from. 

He could simply say: “I love you” or “We should date” or “Be mine, dumbass” or “Let’s get together” or “You’re my everything” or “Stay with me.”

Although, that last one would be painful to hear.

Oikawa couldn’t stay in Japan—not if he wanted to reach the star-like goals that filled the vast sky of his life-long ambitions.

Besides, Iwaizumi had his own dreams to follow. He would be going to California for a while. 

But there was one dream they could both follow, and that was living a life bound together by their love. If only someone would get his shit together and confess. 

That’s what Oikawa kept thinking to himself the next morning as he ate breakfast with his three friends, though he was also feeling fresh irritation at Makki and Mattsun for stealing so much attention from Iwaizumi—attention that should have been all for him.

Throughout the whole meal, he shot repetitive scowls at the date crashers, also directing several impatient pouts towards the guy who needed to hurry up and step into the role of being the love of his life. 

Unfortunately, his attitude-filled expressions earned him more than one flick on the forehead from Iwaizumi.

But maybe all of those flicks meant something other than the words that went with them, which was usually, “Quit it, dumbass. Your face is gonna stick like that.” 

It might actually be morse code for “I think you’re cute,” or something.

Who could say for sure?

That morning, Iwaizumi had to work at his part-time job beginning at eight o’clock, and the Dynamic Duo of Chaos already had plans set with their families for most of the day.

So the three of them were going to leave Oikawa’s place after they all finished breakfast, which was cooked by Iwaizumi at his own insistence. He didn’t want Oikawa to “cut himself again or poison anyone.”

Mattsun and Makki had just about died from laughter after hearing that, and Oikawa was extremely tempted to help them the rest of the way.

Oikawa also happened to decide that he wouldn’t ever be letting Mattsun or Makki use his kitchen again. Not after how terrible the previous night’s dinner turned out. 

Although, he had tasted Mattsun’s cooking on many different occasions, and it had never been so awful before. It wasn’t exactly fine dining, but it looked appetizing (at least fifty percent of the time), and it had (almost) always been edible.

The sudden inconsistency was just another thing that made Oikawa feel like his friends were fucking with him on purpose. He definitely wouldn’t put it past them, and he was going to have to be more cautious about fending off their interference in the future.

After finishing breakfast and washing the dishes—including the ones from the previous night, since they had been forgotten—Oikawa bid his friends farewell.

Then he hurried through the list of chores his parents had asked him to do while they were gone over the weekend.

When that was done, he went to his room and flipped through the IwaOi notebook to pass a bit of time. Makki had let him borrow it, but only after extracting a promise that it would be returned in the exact same condition as when it was first lent. 

That meant no tearing out pages, no adding anything new, and absolutely no scribbling anything out—especially things that were “an important part of the aesthetic, even if they seem inappropriate at first glance,” in Makki’s own words. 

Makki was strangely attached to that weird little notebook filled with weird little ideas. He even claimed that it held deep sentimental value for him and Mattsun, because apparently, they had worked on it together from before they had even started dating each other.

Creating the IwaOi notebook in secret over the course of three years had been quite the bonding experience, it would seem.

As far as ideas from the notebook went, Oikawa already knew which one he was going with next, and things were neatly arranged to make it happen later that day. He had also picked out a couple of other ideas that he was willing to try, if the need should arise—meaning, if Makki and Mattsun somehow found a way to sabotage things again, whether by accident, or on purpose. 

So he was casually looking through the notebook just to see what kind of ideas were written outside of the Ways Oikawa Would Force Iwaizumi To Confess To Him section. 

There were many other sections with titles such as: Ten Ways Oikawa Would Confess While Trying To Be Cool About It; If Iwaizumi Confessed First Before The End Of High School; Situations That Would Lead To Mutual Jealousy And Simultaneous Confessions; How Oikawa Would Confess If He Was Desperate; What Iwaizumi Would Do If Oikawa Got Hurt In Various Ways (and how each would lead to a confession); Confessions That Would Be Really Fucked Up But Also Hilarious; Circumstances Where Sex Would Come Before The Confession; Ways Oikawa Would Confess If He Thought Someone Else Was After Iwaizumi’s Heart.

There were dozens of ideas—ranging from fluffy to cringe-worthy—in each of those sections. The IwaOi notebook was undoubtedly a very odd thing to have been thought of in the first place, but it was still a creative masterpiece worthy of at least some level of appreciation, if not wholehearted admiration.

Oikawa couldn’t stop himself from imagining how some of the scenarios in the notebook would have played out. Many of them were kind of dramatic and unrealistic, but they still gave him an interesting chain of events to picture in his mind.

Soon he was sprawled out on his bed, relaxing on his stomach and kicking his feet as he flipped through the notebook.

Based on the handwriting, Makki and Mattsun had come up with most of the ideas together, probably passing the notebook back and forth based on how some of the lines were written in a different colored ink.

Almost every idea in the entire notebook had conversations between them, either throughout, or after the main idea.

One said: Iwaizumi takes Oikawa to a cat cafe. The cats would probably hate Oikawa though. So he would end up getting all scratched up. Iwaizumi would feel bad about it afterwards. Then he would help Oikawa bandage his wounds and there would totally be a kiss by the end of it. Haha yeah just to make Oikawa feel better. You know Oikawa would totally whine until he got even more kisses out of it. Yeah, but Iwaizumi wouldn’t take much convincing. True. Iwaizumi would just be thankful for the excuse. He’s been wanting that kiss for a long time. But not as much as Oikawa has. I caught him staring at Iwaizumi’s lips when we were all changing in the club room. No way, when? Yesterday. Saw it with my own two eyes. It even gave me goosebumps because that look was so filled with raw sexual energy. They both have raw sexual energy. Hahaha yeah they do ;) and I can’t wait until they start cooking it. Wait, no. That sounded weird. It’s cool. I was totally thinking the same thing.

Oikawa chuckled as he read through that, feeling like his friends were a matching set of weirdos.

When it came down to it, he was surprised that he was being allowed to see this notebook at all, considering how much creepy stuff was inside of it. 

The next one said: Oikawa would convince Iwaizumi to go rollerskating with him just to try something new. But I bet Iwaizumi is actually really bad at roller skating. No, it’s probably Oikawa who would be bad at it. Yeah, you’re right. Okay, so Oikawa is bad at roller skating. Would they be at a park or an indoor rink? Hmmm, probably an indoor rink. Oikawa would totally get swarmed by fangirls even though he would be scooting around super slow. But Iwaizumi would get jealous because he has to share Oikawa with all those girls, as usual. Oh, totally. And that’s what would make him lose his shit in the best kind of way. You thinking what I’m thinking? Are you thinking he would grab Oikawa and kiss him in front of all those girls? Yes!!! Exactly. Great minds think alike ;) Haha I was about to write that!

“As if Iwa-chan would ever do that,” Oikawa muttered as he skipped to the next section. “Leave it to those dumb brats to think up something so ridiculous.” 

Another idea said: Iwaizumi realizes his feelings when Oikawa is already at the airport, like one of those major ah-ha moments. Right, cause he can be dense. Exactly. It might take that kind of thing for him to be honest with himself. Anyway, Iwaizumi rushes to the airport to try and catch Oikawa but he doesn’t make it in time. So he flies to Argentina to confess in person because we love a dramatic entrance. Of course. And Oikawa would absolutely melt over the fact that Iwaizumi showed up like that. Then they would have sex on a beach, probably. With the sun on their backs and sand in their asses. Oh, lovely image. But what would happen if someone caught them and took pictures? Those would sell to his fanclub for a lot, I bet. What if WE took the pictures and sold them to his fanclub? They would sell for a lot, and then WE would get the money. Cha-ching, darling. That’s an early retirement. IwaOi photo leaks can be our cash cow. Yeah, then we can both stay home and be househusbands. Like… for each other, or? I mean… yeah, if you wanted. I’d be down for that. Wow, and we only just started dating ;) moving kinda fast, aren’t we? I’ll show you ~moving kinda fast~ Hehe please do!!

Oikawa rolled his eyes and sighed. He felt like he was third wheeling, even though this was just a notebook filled with old conversations. So he turned the page with a sassy flip of his wrist.

But seeing page after page of the silly conversations Makki and Mattsun wrote while making the notebook made Oikawa realize why they valued it so much. It seemed like something they had really enjoyed doing together.

Maybe they even owed their relationship to it, which meant they kind of owed their relationship to Oikawa and Iwaizumi. That seemed like some solid logic.

With that thought in mind, Oikawa felt very pleased and self-important.

He might even tell Iwaizumi about the notebook and show him all the conversations between those two lovebirds, but only after he had forced a confession out of him. Then they could be smug—and kind of creeped out—together, as a couple. 

A few hours passed quickly while Oikawa lost himself in imagining different scenarios from the notebook. But when he noticed that it was already getting close to noon, he had to put it away and get ready for work.

Iwaizumi wasn’t the only one with a part-time job.

They had both found one not long after graduation. Iwaizumi was working at a warehouse, whereas Oikawa had found an opening at a convenience store. It was kind of boring sometimes, but he was popular with the customers, and he had already gotten the hang of his responsibilities. 

Now he had lots of scenarios to daydream about during slow times at work, and it was all thanks to Makki’s silly notebook.

Chapter Text

Right after Oikawa was finished with work, he caught the train and made his way to his sister’s house. He was going to borrow her car and inflatable raft for the next plan from the IwaOi notebook, which was to drive out to Kamafusa Lake, where he and Iwaizumi could watch the sunset and float under the stars.

It would be extremely romantic, and it was also going to be extremely successful. 

Makki did have some genuinely sweet and creative ideas in the notebook; not all of them were super creepy or incredibly unrealistic. But finding the small amount of ideas that were worth trying did feel a bit like tromping through a dense jungle that was made up almost entirely of pervy conjectures about Iwaizumi and himself.

It felt deeply embarrassing to have read some of the ideas, while others left him feeling a deep level of shock—mostly at Makki and Mattsun’s absolutely audacious imaginations. 

However, being subjected to perceiving the inner workings of those two serial shippers would be well worth it if he won Iwaizumi’s confession. Reading through so many disturbing ideas was truly an act of love—or perhaps a sacrifice made in the name of love.

Either way, Oikawa was thoroughly excited to try out the lake adventure. Makki had really outdone himself with this particular idea. 

Seriously—who would be able to resist confessing their feelings for their childhood best friend under such tempting conditions?

Certainly not Iwaizumi.

Oikawa himself might even have a hard time fighting the temptation if Iwaizumi didn’t get to it early on in the night. But he was determined to be the winner, and that meant he couldn’t reveal his feelings.

Iwaizumi was going to confess to him, and that was that.

Once he had arrived at his sister’s house, he let himself inside with his spare key. The old house was like his second home, and his sister had given him a key for the purpose of letting himself in whenever he needed a place to hang out. He spent a lot of time at his sister’s house, if only to visit Takeru, since he was Takeru’s favorite (and only) uncle. 

Oikawa’s sister was already well aware of his intention to borrow her car and her raft, graciously allowing it under the condition that he was very careful with both. Makki had then offered to swing by earlier in the day to pack the car full of picnic foods, outdoors supplies, and various things like that.

All Oikawa had to do was change out of his work clothes, get the keys, and head to the garage. Everything was all set, and he was eager to leave as soon as possible.

However, he was delayed by Takeru’s enthusiasm as soon as he stepped into the house. 

“Can I come to the lake with you?!” Takeru yelled, jumping up and down in front of his uncle. 

Oikawa put his hand on the top of Takeru’s head, softly pushing him down as he slipped off his shoes. “Stop bouncing around like that. And who told you I was going to the lake?”

“Your friends said that you’re going there with Iwaizumi, and that’s why they were here packing my mom’s car with stuff earlier,” Takeru replied as he stopped bouncing and put his hands together pleadingly. “So, can I come with you guys?”

“Not this time,” Oikawa remarked offhandedly, giving a few patronizing pats on Takeru’s head. Then he swung off his backpack, pulling out the shirt and hoodie that he would be changing into, setting them down near his shoes afterwards. “I’ll take you there some other day.”

“But you’re leaving soon… and I wanted to spend time with you,” Takeru mumbled dejectedly, pulling his very best ‘I guess you don’t really love me’ pout, which he had definitely learned from Oikawa himself. 

Oikawa felt like Takeru’s words stabbed him right in the heart. He was definitely going to miss spending time with him after he left the country.

He frowned as he went to pull off his work shirt, shoving it into his backpack, which was otherwise empty now that his fresh clothes were at his feet.

“I’ve still got about ten weeks left, you know. We can spend an entire day together before I leave.”

Takeru didn’t seem very content with that promise. He put his hands in his pockets and slumped his shoulders, looking at the floor as he mumbled a reply.

“But what if you forget?”

Oikawa pulled on his clean shirt—followed by his favorite hoodie—and then sighed, unable to resist his favorite child in the whole wide world. “How about we do it tomorrow? I don’t have work, so we can spend the entire day doing whatever you want.”

Takeru’s face lit up with a wide smile, which was such a major contrast for someone who was looking so defeated just seconds earlier.

If Iwaizumi had been there, he would have teased Oikawa for being a push-over.

“We can really do whatever I want tomorrow?!”

“As long as you’re super, extra, ultra good for your mom at bedtime tonight,” Oikawa replied in his ‘I’m older, wiser, and more mature than you’ voice.

But it was just for the benefit of his sister to hear, since she was coming over to greet him. 

“Wow, Tooru,” she said with a sarcastic grin. “When did you get so considerate?”

“I stole all of your kindness on the day I was born,” Oikawa replied with a haughty toss of his hair. He briefly stuck his tongue out before speaking again. “That’s why you’re always such a meanie.”

“A mean sister wouldn’t be letting you borrow her car,” she said with an evil look in her eye, as if she were just waiting for the chance to turn into the horrible ogre she had been while they were growing up together. “Should I just take back my offer then, even though your friends went through all that effort to bring so much stuff over?”

“Ack! I meant you’re always so nice,” Oikawa corrected, apologetically waving a hand in front of himself. “And that’s totally where I got it from!”

“That’s what I thought,” she replied with a triumphant smirk. She threw her car keys at Oikawa, who caught them easily. “Don’t make me regret it. No dents, dings, or scratches—or else. And you two can just sleep here when you get back. Takeru’s looking forward to seeing Iwaizumi.”

“Thanks, Sis,” Oikawa said, reaching down to pick up his shoes so that he could carry them through the house. He decided to leave his backpack behind because he wouldn’t need it. 

He quickly walked towards the garage door, since he didn’t have time to stick around any longer. It was already past six and he was supposed to pick Iwaizumi up in five minutes. He was definitely going to be a little late, and they were probably going to miss the sunset out at the lake.

But driving together at twilight would still be a fairly romantic way to start the evening. 

“Why did your friends bring so much stuff over?” Takeru asked as he followed Oikawa from the entryway to the living room. “Are you and Iwaizumi gonna camp out there?”

Oikawa hummed thoughtfully as he hurried towards the garage door. “We’re not staying out there, but we won’t be home until late. And I’m not actually sure what they brought. Makki said he’d make sure everything I’d need was in the trunk, so I just left it to him. Friends can be really helpful like that sometimes.”

“Oh. Well, I thought you were camping because they brought pillows and blankets,” Takeru said as he dashed around Oikawa’s body to open the garage door for him, like the polite child he was sometimes capable of being—especially when he had the promise of a full day of being spoiled by Oikawa to look forward to.

Oikawa felt his face heat up a bit.

He might not know for sure what Makki was thinking by packing pillows and blankets, but he had a pretty good guess, which was directly from one of the ideas he happened to read about in the notebook earlier that day.

In that idea, he and Iwaizumi slept in the back of a van out in the wilderness. It was from the Circumstances Where Sex Would Come Before The Confession section.

“Being kinda pushy, aren’t we?” Oikawa muttered under his breath. Then he turned to smile at Takeru, coming up with an explanation meant to redirect his own thoughts more than anything else. “That’s just in case we get too tired to drive home and need to sleep out there.”

“So you ARE staying out there all night,” Takeru accused, crossing his arms and stomping his foot. “Why can’t I come with you?! I love camping!”

With a click of his tongue and a shake of his head, Oikawa walked into the garage and slipped his shoes back on. “Don’t be selfish, Takeru. Iwa-chan wants to spend time with me before I leave—with just us two besties. So be a good little boy and use the next few hours to come up with what we’re doing tomorrow.”

“Alright, fine. I’ll go make a list!” Takeru declared as he dashed out of the garage, accidentally slamming the door closed behind himself.  

Oikawa had watched Takeru go with a smug grin, feeling like he was getting good at redirecting him.

Then he went to the back of his sister’s SUV and opened the hatch so he could peek at what Makki and Mattsun had packed for him.

Just like Takeru said, there was a stack of pillows and blankets that took up almost half the trunk space. 

He rolled his eyes at that—though a blush returned to his face because it reminded him of that very inappropriate section of the notebook, which he had (innocently!) skimmed through that morning. 

There was also an ice chest filled with way too much food for just one evening, a large box that held the raft, and lots of helpful supplies gathered together in a small basket: battery operated lanterns, flashlights, bug spray, and other things like that.

It was all very well organized.

Makki really had thought of everything—even things that made Oikawa’s blush grow even darker. There was an unopened package of lube and a bunch of condoms, which were poorly hidden in the basket that held the wide selection of small items. 

“Damn it, Makki,” Oikawa grumbled as he took them and hid them under the edge of one of the pillows.

It would have been horribly embarrassing if Iwaizumi had somehow seen that—and even worse if his sister came across it. He would have never lived it down. 

After confirming that the trunk was full of the things necessary to make the night a success (only in terms of getting a confession, despite what Makki may have been hoping for), Oikawa closed the hatch and walked around to the front of the SUV. He climbed into the driver seat and clicked the button to open the automatic garage door, then smiled as he turned on some music.

He was finally on his way to the start of a lovely evening that would surely end with him successfully winning Iwaizumi’s heart. 

Thanks to all of the Saturday night traffic, it took him about thirty minutes to get to Iwaizumi’s house, meaning he was now over twenty minutes late.

Iwaizumi was waiting in front of his house while staring down at his phone—almost as if he were waiting for Oikawa to let him know he was running late, which would have been the considerate thing to do.

But there just hadn’t been time for that.

Oikawa had been in a hurry to leave his sister’s house, and he didn’t want to be on his phone while driving. His sister had forbidden that in such an authoritative way when he was first asking to borrow the SUV that it sent a terrified shudder down his spine to even consider going against her orders.

That’s why his phone was currently tucked away in the glove box, where he could more easily resist the temptation of using it.

“You’re late, Shittykawa,” Iwaizumi said as he opened the car door, sliding into the front passenger seat with a huff. 

Oikawa tossed his hair offendedly. “I can’t always be perfect, Iwa-chan. A little flaw here and there adds flavor to my personality.”

“You’re chock-full of flavor, then. And when have you ever been perfect?” Iwaizumi asked dryly. Then he buckled himself in and switched the bluetooth in the car, connecting it to his own phone. 

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa pouted as he drove away from Iwaizumi’s house. “Are you saying I’m full of flaws?”

“Yep. You’re a spicy dumbass,” Iwaizumi replied with a self-satisfied smirk, getting his usual kick out of razzing Oikawa.

“Woooow. Really, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa glanced at Iwaizumi out of the corner of his eye. “I’m taking you on an exciting nighttime adventure, and that’s how you thank me?”

“This is just for your own entertainment, isn’t it? I didn’t ask you to take me on an adventure,” Iwaizumi replied casually, flipping through songs to find what he wanted to listen to on the drive, which was going to take about thirty minutes. “Besides, I’ve got work all day tomorrow. Staying out late isn’t gonna make my job any easier on me. So I’m basically doing you a favor by coming with you to make sure you don’t drown yourself in the lake.”

“Maybe I’ll drown you in the lake,” Oikawa muttered irritably as he squinted at the strong light from sunset, which was shining right in his eyes while he tried to drive.

Traveling at this hour wasn’t nearly as romantic as he had hoped it would be. 

Iwaizumi snorted in amusement. “Drown me, and I’ll haunt you forever. You’ll never know a day of peace again.”

“Fine by me,” Oikawa replied with a sassy grin. “I’ll be sure to sing extra loud in the shower from now on, and I’ll tell all your embarrassing secrets to everyone we know while you watch helplessly.”

“What embarrassing secrets?” Iwaizumi asked, rolling his eyes and scoffing, though he was still switching through different playlists on his phone. “You’re the one with all the embarrassing secrets.”

“Like what? I bet you can’t think of any at all,” Oikawa said with great confidence.

He couldn’t even think of any secrets about himself that would be embarrassing—at least, not right off the top of his head. 

However, Iwaizumi didn’t even hesitate. “That time we were at summer camp as kids, when you shit your pants because you were afraid of the outhouse.”

Oikawa’s lingering grin instantly flipped into a frown. “Iwa-chan!! You promised never to mention that ever again! You even swore on your bug collection!”

“It’s not really a secret anymore,” Iwaizumi replied with a shrug, leaning one elbow against the middle console and briefly glancing up from his phone. “You told everyone in the volleyball club about it last fall, back when we were playing truth or dare at my house.”

“Did I?” Oikawa’s frown deepened, and his grip on the steering wheel got tighter. “I don’t remember that.”

“That’s ‘cause you thought you’d show off by drinking some of my dad’s hard alcohol. You made a total fool of yourself after that,” Iwaizumi said as he put his phone up on the dashboard, having finally settled on which playlist to put on. It was an upbeat one—which didn’t match the current mood in the vehicle.

“How could you let me do that, Iwa-chan?!” Oikawa was completely mortified that he had spilled one of his own most embarrassing secrets. 

“Let you do what? Drink—or make a fool of yourself?

“Either... or both… I don’t know!” Oikawa let out a grumpy sigh and turned to stare at Iwaizumi. “What else did I tell them?”

“I think that’s the only secret they got from you,” Iwaizumi replied as he reached over to hold the wheel steady. “Watch where you’re driving, Oikawa.”

Oikawa looked forward again just in time to swerve back into his lane, having drifted over towards oncoming traffic.

He sighed even more grumpily.

“How else did I make a fool of myself, then? Was it just that?”

“No. It wasn’t just that,” Iwaizumi said bluntly.

Then he was silent, and he was keeping his hand on the wheel, as if he didn’t trust that his life would be spared if he let go of it. 

“Care to elaborate?” Oikawa asked as he smacked at Iwaizumi’s hand. “And I don’t need your help with steering.”

Iwaizumi pulled his hand back and gave a smug grin. “Maybe you’ll find out someday, if I ever need to blackmail you.”

“Iwa-chan! You’re so mean,” Oikawa said as his mind raced through various embarrassing memories.

He was wondering which of them might have been revealed thanks to his own regrettable choices. 

Meanwhile, Iwaizumi grinned even wider and turned the music up, and that’s how they passed the rest of the drive to Kamafusa Lake. It was a beautiful place that had a dam and a fun recreational area, but they were going to a more secluded, lesser known part. 

When Oikawa pulled the SUV into the dirt parking lot, it was almost completely empty. There was only one car parked at the far end; the owner of it was probably out fishing. That was a common activity around the end of March, when the weather was still cold at night, but was finally starting to warm up during the day. 

Oikawa wondered if he should bring Takeru back out there the next day to try out some fishing, or to visit the Michinoku Lakeside park. That area was especially beautiful this time of year, and there was a children’s play area, as well as many flower gardens and impressive fountains.

It would be a good place to spend time together.

However, Takeru would probably have his own big list of things to do by the time Oikawa got back to the house later that night, and it would almost certainly be full of expensive activities. Takeru knew how to milk people for all they were worth, like such a devious little creature. He definitely took after his mother.

Oikawa could remember when his sister used to swindle him out of his birthday money with her fancy words and guilt trips, or just flat out bullying. 

Once the SUV was parked, Oikawa got out and walked around to the back of it, with the intention of pulling the raft box out. It would need to be inflated before they did anything else, because he wanted to get right out on the water.

But he paused when he got there so that he could look up at the sky. It was already dark out, and the stars were shining bright above the lake. The sight was beautiful; he could hardly take his eyes off it.

“We setting up the raft, or what?” Iwaizumi asked from right beside Oikawa, having walked over to him while he was distracted, though he was also looking up at the stars now.

“Just give me a minute,” Oikawa whispered as a lump formed in his throat. 

Something about seeing the stars at night from somewhere without any light pollution made his soul ache with a kind of sweet sorrow. The universe seemed endless in moments like that. It made him feel the insignificance of his own fleeting existence—but it also made him want to make the most of the life he had been given.

He reached for Iwaizumi’s hand without thinking as tears welled up in his eyes, though he caught himself just in time and dropped it back down to his side. 

Then he cleared his throat and blinked away his tears, focusing his attention on the back of the SUV. He definitely wasn’t going to let himself cry before the not-technically-a-date had even really started, and he absolutely wasn’t going to be the first one to initiate hand holding. That would almost be like confessing—and he wasn’t going to lose.

Iwaizumi had to be the one to do it. 

Oikawa opened the hatch to get into the trunk, which made the overhead light in the back of the SUV come on. Then he reached for the box that had the inflatable raft inside of it and pulled it out.

But something caught his attention right as he was passing the box to Iwaizumi, and it was something really embarrassing. The condoms and lube he thought he had hidden were somehow back in view, sitting right on top of the basket of miscellaneous items.

If he wanted to stop Iwaizumi from getting a look at those things, he needed to act fast. 

He swallowed a panicked gasp as he turned to shove the raft box into Iwaizumi’s arms, which effectively pushed him backwards a few steps, just far enough to make him unable to see the basket’s condemning contents. 

“What the hell,” Iwaizumi said as he took hold of the box, barely managing to keep himself from falling down in the dirt. 

Oikawa let out a nervous laugh and moved to block Iwaizumi’s view of the basket, being as inconspicuous as possible. “Ah, we really need to hurry! I’m just so excited to get out on the lake! Will you start getting the raft inflated, Iwa-chan? There should be a pump inside the box.”

“I was already gonna. You didn’t have to stab me with it,” Iwaizumi replied irritably as he adjusted his footing on the dusty ground below his feet. Then he moved the heavy box to one arm and held a hand out. “Give me a flashlight.”

While confusion and panic were still swirling around in Oikawa’s mind, he grabbed a flashlight from the basket, where he was once again forced to see the condoms and lube.

He handed the flashlight to Iwaizumi, waving him off. “You should get it closer to the water to inflate it.”

“Fine,” Iwaizumi said gruffly. He was obviously unhappy about taking a box to the gut, which was a perfectly reasonable reaction.

Oikawa himself was feeling pretty unhappy as well. He could have sworn that he had put the lube and condoms out of sight, and his heart was racing over how close Iwaizumi had been to seeing them. It had been an incredibly stressful moment.

He didn’t know how he would have explained it, and it would have definitely ruined the plan.

Once Iwaizumi had made it over to the edge of the water—which was just barely out of earshot—Oikawa turned his attention to the contents of the trunk. He cautiously picked up the condoms and lube, hiding them both deep inside the cover of one of the pillows. But then he saw some food wrappers at the edge of the stack of blankets and had a truly horrifying realization.

“Makki?” Oikawa whispered angrily. “Mattsun? Are you guys hiding in here?”

“Of course not,” came a voice from under the blanket stack.

Another voice chimed in just after. “What a bold assumption.”

“Why would we even do that?” asked the first voice.

“You assholes!” Oikawa said more loudly than intended, though he was careful to whisper when he spoke again. “What the hell are you doing here?”

“I’m feeling a little unappreciated right now,” Makki said from his hiding place.

Mattsun spoke right after. “Yeah, seriously. We went out of our way to make sure you had everything you’d need tonight.”

“You packed everything and then some, you pervs,” Oikawa whispered shrilly. “Condoms? Lube? What exactly did you think would happen out here?”

“It should be pretty obvious,” Makki replied, sounding calm. “Or do you not know how it works?”

“Maybe we should explain the birds and the bees to him,” Mattsun said solemnly. “Or… birds and birds... bees and bees... which one represents a penis?”

“I’m not sure, my parents used proper names for things when explaining sex. But I feel like either of them could work,” Makki mused aloud. “Would you say a penis is like a stinger or a beak?”

“Honestly, I don’t love the imagery of either,” Mattsun replied in a serious tone. “Let’s go with a pacific geoduck if we’re sticking with animal themes.”

“Explain what that is, babe. I’m a little lost.”

“Stop,” Oikawa ordered, pointing at the stack of blankets that were concealing those two bastards-disguised-as-friends. “I don’t need your help with that, so knock it off.”  

“Are you sure?” Makki asked earnestly. “There’s no need to be embarrassed about being inexperienced.”

“Yeah, and we’re pretty knowledgeable when it comes to that,” Mattsun added in an amused voice.

It was almost a guarantee that he was wiggling his eyebrows suggestively from somewhere under those blankets.

Oikawa sighed. There was no choice but to roll with the situation, since they were so far out from town.

That is, unless he wanted to abandon Makki and Mattsun at the lake, which was incredibly tempting.

But he decided to just continue as planned, hopefully with as little interference from the two stowaways as possible.

“I want you guys to stay hidden and be quiet,” Oikawa grumbled irritably. “Don’t leave the car, or I’ll ditch you out here to fend for yourselves and find your own way home.”

“We weren’t even gonna come out, anyway,” Mattsun said. “We just tagged along to make sure everything went well.”

“Yeah, exactly,” Makki said cheerfully. “We just care about you guys so much, you know?”

“It really shows in the creepiness of your stalking,” Oikawa deadpanned as he stuck his hands into the front pocket of his hoodie. There was a breeze that was making him feel chilly. 

“We just loooove you,” Makki crooned.

“Soooo much,” Mattsun added. 

“To the moon and baaaaaack,” they sang at the same time.

“Fuck off,” Oikawa said, using one hand to open the ice chest, which was already missing half the contents that had been in there when he last looked.

It was thanks to those two rats.

He sighed irritably as he grabbed a couple bottles of juice and a bag of chips, and then he stuck an extra flashlight in his hoodie pocket, giving one more warning to Makki and Mattsun.

“If Iwa-chan finds out that you’re hiding in here, I will rage.”

“We’ll be so quiet,” Makki said quietly, barely audible from within the blanket stack.

“And so good,” Mattsun added in just as quiet a voice.

“You won’t even know we’re here,” they whispered together in an disgustingly eerie way.

Oikawa rolled his eyes.

After that, he reached up to close the hatch, slamming it shut with a loud bang, letting his sister’s SUV bear the brunt of his irritation.

“I can’t believe those guys,” he muttered to himself as he walked towards where Iwaizumi was still working on getting the raft ready. 

Once he got over there, he took the flashlight from Iwaizumi’s mouth—where it had been placed to provide lighting—and held it for him so that he could finish using the air pump to inflate the raft.

Iwaizumi made quick work of his job. The raft was ready to go after just another minute, and the two of them brought it to the edge of the water, stepping into it once it was there.

Oikawa had both flashlights in his hoodie pocket and was balancing the snacks in his arms. 

Meanwhile, Iwaizumi used one of the two oars to help the raft cast off. Then he rowed them out until they were drifting far enough away to achieve the feeling of being out in the open. The water on the lake was calm, though underwater currents and a gusty breeze pushed the raft further out little by little. 

“So how long are we staying out here?” Iwaizumi asked as he put the oars down and went to stretch out across the bottom of the raft, which had just enough room for two people to lay side by side. Then he moved one arm behind his head and stared up at the full moon.

Oikawa dropped the bottles of juice and bag of chips at their feet, then went to lie beside Iwaizumi, looking up at the stars as he answered. “Until I feel like going home.”

“Kay,” Iwaizumi replied without complaint.

He seemed to be more relaxed than usual, which was ideal, since the urge to confess might sneak up on him more easily that way.

A few minutes of comfortable silence passed as the raft drifted peacefully.

They both stared upwards, just watching the heavens above and getting lost in thought. All that could be heard was the sound of cicadas from somewhere in the forest surrounding the lake. That was kind of strange and surprising; they didn’t usually come out until June, and April was still a week away. 

Cicadas sounded like summer, which reminded Oikawa of all the days he and Iwaizumi went bug catching or swimming to pass the time as children. It also reminded him of the hours upon hours spent passing a volleyball back and forth when they were first learning how to play. If not for Iwaizumi, he wasn’t sure how far he would have made it, or how long he would have managed to stay on the court.

There were so many times that Iwaizumi had saved him from himself and supported him in just the right way. 

The history that the two of them shared was incredibly rich, deeply meaningful, and absolutely unforgettable. 

The next phase of life would mean leaving so much behind, including the people he truly cared about. It would also lead to facing the world of volleyball without Iwaizumi there beside him for the first time ever. That thought was almost too much to bear—he had come to depend on Iwaizumi way more than he had ever consciously realized, and it was hard to picture himself playing a serious game without his favorite ace. 

But he knew that he would still be able to grow and get stronger after they were apart, even if it was scary and painful at first.

As he stared at the sky and let his mind drift around in the past, he had a persistent feeling that there was something he was waiting for at the current moment—aside from Iwaizumi’s confession, that is. It just seemed like one of those surreal points in time that was building up to an important event.

He could feel it in his bones, like an instinct alerting him to danger, except it didn’t feel like danger at all. It felt like fate.

Quite suddenly, a shooting star ripped across the horizon, leaving sprinkles of light in its wake that faded within a fraction of a second. The image filled Oikawa’s eyes with wonder, and he experienced an intense surge of emotion as he laid beside the guy he loved under the nighttime sky, for what might be the last time in months—if not years. 

“Iwa-chan… will the stars look different when I’m in Argentina?”

“Won’t be much difference between here and there—or here and California, for that matter,” Iwaizumi replied. “We’ll still be under the same sky, looking at the same stars.”

“Even when we’re miles apart,” Oikawa murmured.

He felt the impulse to reach for Iwaizumi’s hand again, and it was harder to resist this time, because their knuckles were already almost touching as they lay beside each other in the raft. His fingers twitched slightly, and he barely managed to stop himself from reaching over.

“Are you gonna miss me when I leave?”

“What kinda question is that?” Iwaizumi asked in a rough sort of way that was quite typical for him, though there was a subtle tenderness hiding below the surface.

“Just answer me.”

There was a brief pause, during which Iwaizumi moved his hand so that it was gently resting against the back of Oikawa’s, stretching a finger so that their pinkies were intertwined.

“Of course I will, dumbass.”

Oikawa’s whole body froze at the feeling of their pinky fingers hooking together, and a burning heat rushed through him at the same time.

Iwaizumi’s touch was so delicate, almost hesitant, but also very comforting.

That was his Iwaizumi. His Iwa-chan. There was no one else he would rather give his heart to, and he wanted a confession to happen so strongly at that moment that he almost gave in and did it himself. 

But there was something inside of him that desperately needed to hear Iwaizumi say it first. 

Since the moon was full, there was a little bit of light to see by, though it wasn’t bright enough to reveal fine details. Regardless, Oikawa turned his head to see where Iwaizumi was looking at that moment, and it was a shock when he was met with Iwaizumi’s nose just inches from his own.

They were face to face, and there was suddenly so much tension between them that Oikawa could hardly breathe.

He swallowed hard as his mouth went dry from nervousness. He had to fight the impulse to lick his lips, and it felt like gravity was pulling him closer to Iwaizumi—or maybe Iwaizumi was coming closer to him.

Either way, it would take almost no effort to close the gap. 

But then something cold and wet touched Oikawa’s shoulder, which somehow made him think of a ghost grabbing him. So he sat up in a hurry with a screech.

“There’s something in here with us!”

Iwaizumi seemed unable to move for a moment, likely from surprise, or maybe just pure disbelief.

But then he cleared his throat and sat up, speaking irritably. “What the hell are you talking about?”

Oikawa had reached back to touch his shoulder, which had become soaked with something at some point. He wondered if a bug had bitten him so badly that it left a serious wound.

“Am I bleeding from right here, Iwa-chan?”

“Why would you be bleeding?” Iwaizumi asked skeptically as he reached over to feel Oikawa’s shoulder, bringing his fingers back to sniff them afterwards. “That’s weird. It’s definitely wet, but it’s not blood. Is there a leak in the raft?”

Oikawa scrambled to turn on one of the flashlights and pointed it at the corner of the raft, near where he had just been. There was a small pool of water gathering there. From the looks of it, there was a very tiny hole through the bottom of the raft. 

Iwaizumi had leaned over to check it out as well, and once he saw that there was definitely a leak, he reached for the oars. “That’s shitty luck. We’d better head back before the raft fills up with water.”

“I can’t believe there’s a leak,” Oikawa grumbled as he took an oar from Iwaizumi to help him paddle. They had already drifted far out across the surface of the lake, so it was going to take some effort to get back. “My sister just got this raft a few weeks ago. Ugh, she’ll totally blame me for this.”

“She’s gonna be so pissed,” Iwaizumi said with a chuckle. “You’ll have to buy her a new one.”

Oikawa let out a discouraged sigh. “I’m not made of money.”

“True. You’re made of trash,” Iwaizumi teased. He didn’t seem that disappointed about having to head back to shore.

However, Oikawa was feeling extremely let down. He was sure a kiss would have happened just then—and Iwaizumi was totally about to initiate it. That would have been as good as a confession. So he was quietly sulking, since he had been even closer than he was last time to winning Iwaizumi’s heart.

“Got no come back for that?” Iwaizumi asked after a few seconds.

“Huh?”

“I said you’re made of trash,” Iwaizumi repeated slowly and clearly. “Usually, you’d whine about how mean I am.”

“Oh… you’re very mean, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa said halfheartedly.

It was hard to engage in playful banter when he was so upset over the plan getting ruined, and to make things worse, a lot more water was leaking into the raft. It was quite unpleasant to be in. His pants were wet from just above his thighs down to his ankles, because he was sitting on his knees to row. 

Meanwhile, Iwaizumi let out a short huff. “How long are you gonna sulk? I’ll help you buy a new raft, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“It doesn’t matter,” Oikawa said, sounding depressed as he continued to row. “I just hope there’s extra clothes in the car.”

“You can’t remember if you packed any?” 

Oikawa realized that letting Iwaizumi know Makki and Mattsun were the ones who packed for the trip would seem suspicious, so he let out a weak chuckle. “Yeah, that’s right. I was in a hurry.”

“Worst case scenario, we can just drive home in our boxers with the heat blasting,” Iwaizumi suggested, saying it in a way that made it seem like he was trying to cheer Oikawa up.

“But that would be super embarrassing,” Oikawa replied with a whine. 

Iwaizumi chuckled. “At least it’s dark out, so the other drivers wouldn’t be able to see us. And we could just pull right into your sister’s garage. That way, we’re not walking around outside in our underwear.”

“Well, my sister might be a little shocked by that,” Oikawa said, cracking a slight grin as he pictured the confused expression his sister would be wearing if they walked inside her house in just their underwear. “And she’d probably never let me borrow her car again.”

“It’ll be a funny story someday,” Iwaizumi replied, his voice reassuring. Then he let out a sharp exhale as a shiver ran through him. “Though I’ll be kinda bummed if my ass freezes off before we get home. This water’s really fucking cold, and my pants are soaked.”

“So are mine,” Oikawa said as he tried to row a little faster.

The raft was now filled with water to the point that it was getting horribly uncomfortable, since the nighttime air was brisk. Also, if the raft kept deflating at the same rate, they would end up having to swim to shore before too long.

And that’s exactly what happened. 

When they were just a stone’s throw away from shore, the raft started to sink, so they got out and swam for it while towing the raft behind them. Then they dragged the raft (and their fully soaked selves) out of the water.

They were both shivering from head to toe, and Oikawa was feeling grumpy again. It was hard to be anything else when wearing a soggy sweatshirt and wet jeans, which were sticking to his legs uncomfortably. 

“I’ll deflate the raft the rest of the way,” Iwaizumi said as he hopped up and down a few times to warm himself. “You go check the car for extra clothes.”

“Alright,” Oikawa agreed.

Then he turned and made his way over to his sister’s SUV. His shoes were filled with water, sloshing with each step, and there was still a shifting breeze that sent a shiver through him each time it blew.

He had actually forgotten that Makki and Mattsun were in the trunk, but was reminded of it when he opened the hatch and saw two hands sticking out of the pile of blankets, each offering him a towel.

He narrowed his eyes and stared at those mischievous-looking hands, which were holding those oddly convenient towels.

“Tell me something… how did you guys know I’d need those right now?”

“We’ve just got good instincts,” Mattsun answered from inside the blanket pile.

“Preparation is the key to success,” Makki said at almost the same time.  

“You didn’t do anything to the raft, did you?” Oikawa asked in a tone full of irritation. It was hard not to be suspicious, under the circumstances.

“Accusations hurt,” Makki replied loftily. 

Then Mattsun chimed in. “You really think we’d do that?”

“I wouldn’t be surprised,” Oikawa replied sharply as he started to pull off his wet sweatshirt. “Did you guys pack extra clothes?”

“We did not.”

“Nope, didn’t think of that.”

“I thought ‘preparation is the key to success,’” Oikawa said mockingly once he had gotten his sweatshirt off. Then he started twisting it to drain as much water from it as possible. 

“And I stand by that statement,” Makki remarked from within his cozy hiding place, which was probably toasty warm—and more importantly, completely dry. “Sooooooo? Was our plan successful?”

“It would have been,” Oikawa replied sourly. “If not for the leak in the raft.”

“Oof, that sucks,” Mattsun said as he peeked his face out of the blanket pile. He was still holding a towel in one hand. 

Makki poked his head out as well, resting his face against the towel he was holding. “How dreadfully unlucky.”

Oikawa glared at them as he hung his sweatshirt over the open hatch of the SUV, then pulled off his shirt. “Neither of you seem that disappointed.”

“We don’t cry over spilled milk,” Makki said with a grin. 

Mattsun winked as he spoke. “Or leaky rafts, in this case.”

“Who are you talking to?” Iwaizumi asked from where he was still working on letting the air out of the raft. 

Oikawa glanced over at Iwaizumi while unbuttoning his pants. “No one! Just talking to myself.”

“You’re such a weirdo,” Iwaizumi replied with a chuckle, though his voice sounded tight and miserable, probably from being so cold. “Come help me with the rest of this. I need you to stand on the edges so all the air gets out.”

“Just a sec,” Oikawa replied. He slipped out of his shoes and took his pants off, twisting them to get the water out. Then he grabbed the towels and put them around his shoulders, glaring at Makki and Mattsun afterwards. “Shut up and stay hidden.”

“Roger that,” they replied together. Then they pulled their faces back under the blanket stack.

Oikawa sighed as he walked over to Iwaizumi. It was way too cold to be wearing just boxers, but it wasn’t as unpleasant as the wet clothes had been. So he shivered in silence as he stepped on the edges of the raft with his bare feet to get the rest of the air out. Then he and Iwaizumi rolled it up and stuck it in the box, despite the fact that it was still very wet. But they could deal with that later. 

Once that was done, Iwaizumi started to strip out of his clothes, and Oikawa went to pack the raft away.

“There weren’t any extra clothes,” Oikawa called out as he carried the raft box to the back of the SUV.

He roughly shoved it against the blankets a few times, earning some quiet grunts from Makki and Mattsun.

Then he set it down where it had been earlier and slammed the hatch closed before walking back over to Iwaizumi. “But I’ve got towels.”

“At least there’s that,” Iwaizumi said as he finished wringing out his clothes as best he could. He was shivering in only his boxes, just like Oikawa. 

“Here,” Oikawa said. He was holding a towel towards Iwaizumi, using just the light of the moon to see by, since the SUV light shut off when he closed the back of it.

“Thanks.” 

Oikawa and Iwaizumi dried themselves off as much as possible. Afterwards, they laid one towel across the back seat of the SUV, putting their wet clothes and dirty shoes on top. Then they used the other towel to thoroughly wipe their feet. They were trying to be careful about keeping the inside of the vehicle clean, because they both wanted to avoid the wrath of Oikawa’s sister. 

After all that, they climbed into the car barefoot, wearing just their boxers. Then they blasted the heat, just like Iwaizumi had joked about. It was the most practical way to deal with the situation, since Oikawa couldn’t move the blankets that were hiding Makki and Mattsun. 

The drive home was quiet in terms of conversation, but loud as far as music went. Iwaizumi picked a playlist with a lot of heavy rock, and Oikawa turned it up as loud as he could handle—mostly to drown out his racing thoughts about what kissing Iwaizumi would have been like, since being in just his boxers made it a bad time for accidentally getting aroused. 

However, it was also to damage Makki and Mattsun’s ears as much as possible; he specifically set the volume to play louder in the back of the vehicle. That was their punishment for tagging along uninvited, and for possibly sabotaging the raft. Oikawa didn’t fully believe their claims of innocence. 

It was almost ten o’clock when they finally got back to his sister’s house, and Oikawa pulled the SUV right into the garage, desperately hoping that his sister would be in bed earlier than usual.

He really didn’t want to explain why he and Iwaizumi were wearing just their boxers.

Despite how entertaining it would be to see how his sister would react, he was justifiably worried that she would tease him about it in a way that would be especially embarrassing, and his nerves were already shot for the day.

After shutting off the SUV, Oikawa went around to the back of it and opened up the hatch, resisting the urge to punch the pile of blankets in order to harass the two people hiding within them. It was incredibly tempting after all the trouble that they may have been the ones to cause.

But instead of doing that, he pulled out the raft and a few other things that belonged to his sister. He left the rest of the stuff in the trunk; it all belonged to Makki, and it could be dropped off at his house the next day.

Meanwhile, Iwaizumi was grabbing their wet clothes out of the back seat, and he was looking ridiculously good while doing so in just his black boxers. 

Oikawa blushed and hurried to look away as soon as that thought crossed his mind. After all, he was still in just boxers as well, and he really didn’t want to add ‘having to explain an easily visible erection to his sister, nephew, and crush’ to the list of things he had been forced to cope with that evening. 

Just after Iwaizumi had taken the wet clothes inside, Oikawa spoke sharply to Makki and Mattsun. “You two can’t sleep in the house, so find yourselves a way home. Or stay here in the car all night. Do whatever—just don’t come inside.” 

Makki jumped out of the trunk after being acknowledged, gasping for air as if he had been underwater for a long time. “Aw, why can’t we sleep over? We were so well behaved the whole time, being all good and quiet, just like you wanted.”

“Yeah,” Mattsun said as he climbed out of the blanket pile and hopped out of the SUV, stretching his arms over his head once he had the space to do so. “And I really need to pee.”

“You should’ve thought about that before sneaking along uninvited,” Oikawa replied, not feeling a single drop of sympathy.

Unfortunately, Takeru came into the garage to find Oikawa just then, and he immediately spotted Makki and Mattsun standing near the end of the SUV. “You guys are here, too? This is like a big slumber party now! You’re all staying, right?”

“Of course we are!” Makki quickly spoke before Oikawa had the chance. “We got here right when your uncle was getting back, and we wouldn’t dream of missing out on the fun!”

“Cool! I’ll go tell my mom we need more futons set up in my room!” Takeru shouted, excitedly rushing back into the house. 

Things were now set in motion, and it seemed like there was no stopping the impending Slumber Party of Despair—not that Oikawa was being dramatic by thinking that, or anything. 

It just really seemed like he couldn’t catch a break. He hadn’t had Iwaizumi to himself the previous night, and now he was sharing him with extra people during this sleepover.

Takeru alone wouldn’t have been too bad; he always fell asleep before eleven, which would leave Oikawa and Iwaizumi a little bit of time afterwards to talk privately—or maybe continue that romantic moment that had been happening on the raft.

But now it was round two of being held hostage by the requirement of letting other people interact with Iwaizumi during the precious time they had left together. 

However, it turned out that everyone fell asleep before eleven—except Oikawa and Iwaizumi. They were lying next to each other on the floor of Takeru’s bedroom, which was currently a crowded space with four guys spread out on the guest futons. The sound of Makki snoring could just barely be heard over the sound of Mattsun snoring; they were like a pair of locomotives. 

“Iwa-chan?” Oikawa whispered. 

“What?”

Oikawa grinned, wiggling a little closer to his best friend. “Just making sure you were awake.”

“I was almost asleep,” Iwaizumi replied gruffly. 

“Can we do something together tomorrow night?”

Iwaizumi let out an exasperated sigh. “We’ve done something together the past two nights in a row. You’re being kinda clingy, LeechyKawa.”

“Well excuse me for wanting to spend as much time together as possible before we both flee the country,” Oikawa replied with a huff. Then he flipped over onto his stomach, rolling away from Iwaizumi’s futon. 

“I didn’t say I wouldn’t hang out with you tomorrow night,” Iwaizumi replied tiredly, followed by a yawn. “What did you have in mind?”

Oikawa smirked and didn’t respond right away.

He had another plan from the IwaOi notebook in mind, but he was going to be extra careful about not letting Makki and Mattsun overhear which one he had picked out, since there was no guarantee that they were really asleep. He was on high alert around them now, because caution seemed extremely necessary. 

“I’ll tell you later,” Oikawa finally replied. “It’ll be a surprise.”

“You know I hate surprises,” Iwaizumi sighed. “I won’t be off work until around eight tomorrow. I’ve got a twelve hour shift, ‘cause I’m covering for someone.”

Oikawa hummed thoughtfully as he flipped back over onto his back. “It’ll still work if we do it after that. And don’t worry, Iwa-chan. I’ll tell you what I have in mind tomorrow morning. When you’re on your way to work, I’ll text you the details.”

“You’re so dramatic,” Iwaizumi replied dryly. “This isn’t some spy movie where we have to pass a secret code around.”

“Oh, you’d be surprised how often one has to worry about spies,” Oikawa muttered as he glared into the darkness, looking towards where Makki and Mattsun were resting. 

“What?”

“Nothing,” Oikawa said with a smile in his voice. Then he pulled his blanket up to his chin and snuggled back against his pillow. “Goodnight, Iwa-chan.”

“Goodnight, Oikawa,” Iwaizumi replied with another yawn. “Don’t kick me while you’re sleeping.”

Oikawa snorted quietly in amusement. His and Iwaizumi’s futons were right next to each other, just like they had been during certain sleepaway camps when they were kids, and there may have been some rare occasions back then when he ended up kicking Iwaizumi throughout the night. Apparently, it was something that Iwaizumi still remembered quite well.

It seemed like Iwaizumi fell asleep right after their short conversation. His breathing became steady, broken only by the occasional snore.  

However, sleep didn’t come easily to Oikawa, who was replaying that moment from the raft over and over and over again—the one where their faces had been really close together while their hands were touching. It gave him goosebumps every single time he pictured it in his head.

He was also thinking about his plans for the next day, when he would have to take Takeru out to do everything on the ridiculously long list that had been created with so much enthusiasm. After that, he would get to try yet another idea from the IwaOi notebook.

His mind started flipping through other ideas from the notebook, which kept him up until almost two in the morning. As fun as it was to imagine them, he really hoped that the next idea worked out, because dreaming and doing were worlds apart when it came to winning Iwaizumi’s heart.

Chapter Text

It was dark out, and Oikawa was leaning against the outside wall of a cinema by himself just an hour or so after dropping Takeru off at home. As promised, they had spent the entire day together; they went to arcades, parks, a restaurant, a toy store, and several other places that Takeru had wanted to check out.

It had been an extremely fun day for both of them.

But it had also been extremely expensive, and extremely exhausting—especially since Oikawa had stayed up way too late the previous night thinking about the almost-kiss at the lake and imagining different scenarios from the IwaOi notebook. 

However, the effort and cost was totally worth it to give Takeru some special memories of them together before the Argentina chapter of Oikawa’s life was set to begin. He didn’t want his favorite (and only) nephew to forget how much his favorite (and only) uncle liked to dote on him.

For the past thirty minutes, Oikawa had been patiently waiting for Iwaizumi to arrive so that he could go ahead with the third idea he had picked from the notebook.

They would be seeing a horror movie together that was supposed to be absolutely terrifying. It would be the last showing of the day, which started right before ten o’clock. And then they would be having a sleepover with only the two of them afterwards, in hopes of using post-movie jitters as an excuse to cuddle.

Oikawa’s parents were out of town until the next day—meaning they would have the whole place to themselves once they got home. It would be perfect for setting up the opportunity for a confession without the risk of interruption.

Of the three cinemas within a reasonable distance, Oikawa had selected the one that was farthest away from his house. He also hadn’t told Makki or Mattsun the details of when or where the plan was taking place—or that he was even going ahead with another idea from the notebook at all that day. It seemed like the only way to guarantee that alone really meant alone when it came to this would-be date; he didn’t want those two gremlins messing things up again.

Oikawa really liked the concept of a movie bringing him and Iwaizumi together, even if it wasn’t the romantic one he had picked the other night—which would have been perfect, if not for the unwanted additional people giving their unwanted commentary throughout the whole film.

But he had also been going with the cheapest of the ideas he had picked out in order of least to greatest cost. The remaining ones he liked were on the pricey side, and he only had so much money to spare. He was supposed to be saving for Argentina if he wanted to have money outside of what would be provided for him to cover his bare minimum expenses. 

Unfortunately, his current part-time job didn’t pay that much, so he needed to be thrifty—especially after his expensive day out with Takeru. He really hoped this plan worked, because the next one he had in mind would put a big dent in his wallet. But he was definitely willing to do whatever it took to win Iwaizumi’s confession.

If the horror movie could scare Iwaizumi enough, then they would end up seeking comfort from each other while they watched it. The thought was enough to make Oikawa giggle to himself. He could picture Iwaizumi cuddling up in his arms, just as scared as could be. Then maybe they would even sleep in the same bed once they went back to his place; they hadn’t done that since they were kids.

It might even lead to a kiss.

The thought of that made him blush, and he unintentionally pressed the back of one hand against his lips. He had already pictured their first kiss countless times in his mind—it always gave him butterflies, just like it was at that moment. 

“Psst!”

Oikawa quickly dropped his hand down away from his mouth. Then he looked around, trying to find the source of the sound he had just heard. He had a hunch about who it was—though he desperately hoped that he was wrong.  

When he spotted an elderly couple standing several feet away under the glow of a street light, he was both relieved and confused. But then he looked a little closer, squinting at them as he took a few steps in their direction.

That’s when he realized that Makki and Mattsun were wearing absolutely horrible disguises to make themselves look like a pair of elderly foreign men; it was enough to make him double over with laughter. 

“Wh—what are you guys doing?!” Oikawa barely managed to get his words out, because he was wheezing from his laughing fit. “You look like—like someone’s British granddads!”

“I could be your granddaddy,” Makki said as he twisted a finger around his fake beard, which was long and grey. He was also wearing a shaggy wig that matched.

Meanwhile, Mattsun wiggled his poorly glued on eyebrows. They were as thick as his real ones, but were white, just like the shoulder-length wig he was wearing. “Like what you see, young man?”

“I’m actually super disturbed right now,” Oikawa replied once he finally stopped laughing. He had to wipe tears from his eyes as he studied his friends a little closer, wondering where they even found their wigs and various accessories. But he was even more curious about how they had figured out his plans. “How did you guys find out where I am? I really didn’t want you to come.”

Makki was dressed in a plaid button up shirt with a brown sweater vest over it, and he was holding a wooden cane—which he shook at Oikawa as he spoke in an intentionally aged-up sounding voice. “Why shouldn’t we come!? Old people like movies, too!”

“Tch. Kids these days,” Mattsun grumbled in a similarly aged-up voice, giving a solemn shake of his head. “They’ve got no respect for their elders.”

“They just wanna lock us away from all the fun,” Makki declared with passion, adjusting the glasses he wore. They were much too thick and completely unnecessary for him to be wearing.

Then he turned his head and spat at the ground, as if to fully communicate his displeasure over Oikawa being so youthful and unwilling to be spied on.

“You guys literally ruined the moment on Friday night,” Oikawa complained, crossing his arms.

He was convinced that Iwaizumi would have kissed him two nights ago, if not for Mattsun’s sudden sneeze—which may have been fake, now that he considered it. He was also sure that they had messed with the raft somehow the night before, and that had ruined yet another opportunity, so he was feeling pretty peeved about it. 

“You guys purposely interfered yesterday, and I’m not letting it happen again.”

“We’re not here to interfere,” Mattsun claimed as he adjusted his bow tie, which he wore with a white button-up shirt and a pair of suspenders. His baggy pants were pulled up to his chest; that made his ankles peek out the bottom of his pant legs, revealing mismatched plaid socks.

It looked like he and Makki had each taken one sock from two separate pairs.

“That’s right. We’re just role-playing as an elderly couple to spice things up in the bedroom,” Makki added with a flirtatious wink and a firm nod—which made his grey wig slip out of place and sent his fake glasses flying.

But he skillfully caught the glasses while casually reaching to adjust his wig, tipping it like a hat to some people who happened to walk by at the wrong moment. 

Those people seemed as amused as Oikawa had been at first. They stifled their laughter while hurrying away, though one of them kept glancing back in disbelief. 

“You’re telling me this is some kind of...” Oikawa tried to find the right words for what he wanted to ask, but there was just no way to put it delicately, so he was blunt instead. “Do you actually get off on acting like an elderly couple?”

“Think of it like… foreplay for our future selves—with extra emphasis on the fore,” Makki replied, flashing a grin. Then he hunched forward and did a funny dance, hopping from one foot to the other, using his wooden cane for added balance each time he clicked the heels of his loafers together. “Me and Issei are just having ourselves a little fun with the ‘us’ of the future while we’re still agile enough to keep up with each other, if you know what I mean.”

“Please stop talking,” Oikawa quickly said, rubbing his temples with his fingertips, as if that might rid him of the unwanted image of what his friends were claiming to do in private. He really hoped they were joking. “God, that’s so gross. You’re both disgusting. I’ll never think of you in the same way again.”

“Hey now, we didn’t ask for your opinion about how we’ll be ending our date tonight,” Makki said as he straightened up his posture and adjusted his sweater vest. 

“Yeah,” Mattsun agreed, putting an arm around Makki’s shoulder and looking stern. “Don’t kink shame us, bitch.”

“You deserve it. And also, you really think I’d believe you’re on a date right now?” Oikawa asked, narrowing his eyes at them. “At the same time and place that I’ll be trying to romance Iwa-chan?”

“Ah-ah-ah. It’s purely coincidental that we’re in the same place right now,” Makki argued with a mischievous grin. Then he adjusted the thick glasses on his face, which just had to be making it hard for him to see. But he was fully dedicated to the bit.

At that same moment, Mattsun pulled out a handkerchief to clean his own unneeded glasses. “Yeah, it was the work of fate.”

“The will of the gods.”

“It was written in the stars.”

“An unavoidable destiny.”

“Predetermined, like all things in life.”

“Inescapable due to circumstances beyond our control.”

“We actually pulled date ideas out of a hat.”

“This was the path laid before us—we merely followed it.” 

“A prophetic dream showed us the way.” 

“If you listen to your heart, you’ll never be lost.”

“We threw a dart at a map and this is where it landed.”

“We’re just a couple of gays trying to watch a film together, like the good lord intended.”

Oikawa sighed and rolled his eyes. This was obviously just an elaborate way for them to mess things up, though it was actually impressive how much they were willing to commit to the part. He had to give them props for that. “Are you two done?”

“No,” Makki remarked in his normal voice. Then he played up his elderly voice again. “But there’s Iwaizumi, so we’d better skedaddle.”

“Enjoy your evening, young man,” Mattsun added, using an extra raspy aged-up voice. “Godspeed!”

The two of them hurried into the building, moving at a pace that would have been quite impressive if they were actually a pair of ninety-year-olds, and not just dedicated impersonators with way too much free time and way too little shame.

Meanwhile, Oikawa turned around to check if Iwaizumi was actually there or not. He could just barely see the outline of someone walking closer from farther down the sidewalk leading to the cinema—though it took a second for him to confirm that it was really Iwaizumi.

Frankly, it was a little strange that Makki and Mattsun had been able to recognize him despite their ridiculously thick glasses. It’s like they had a sixth sense. An eighth sense, actually—the sixth would be their strange intuition about when Oikawa was using an idea from the IwaOi notebook, and the seventh was knowing how best to annoy him.

Iwaizumi didn’t seem like he had noticed anything out of the ordinary (meaning his two friends in their laughably unbelievable disguises), because he was looking at his phone while he walked. But he put it away and glanced up once he reached Oikawa, then gave a nod and a tired grin. “Hey.”

“You’re late, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa scolded as he reached out to grab Iwaizumi by the sleeve of his jacket, pulling him towards the entrance of the building afterwards. 

Iwaizumi let Oikawa drag him along, though he looked irritated. “What? How am I late? The movie doesn’t start for a few more minutes. And you already bought the tickets, right?”

“I did,” Oikawa replied, continuing to pull Iwaizumi along behind himself. “But we might miss some of the previews!”

“Oh no,” Iwaizumi deadpanned. “Not the previews.”

“I’m glad you understand how important they are,” Oikawa said, glancing at Iwaizumi over his shoulder to smirk at him. But then he caught sight of Mattsun and Makki out of the corner of his eye. 

They were both staring at him and Iwaizumi over the top edge of their thick glasses. However, once they realized that Oikawa had spotted them, they turned around and pretended to be looking at a movie poster on the wall while brushing their fingers through their fake beards.

Unfortunately, Iwaizumi had seen them as well. “Hey, look. Isn’t that—”

“You know, I don’t even want any snacks,” Oikawa said in a rush as he quickened his pace. “Let’s just go find our seats!”

“But I thought I saw—”

“That cool poster over there? Yeah, I like it too,” Oikawa said, cutting Iwaizumi off again. He really didn’t want Iwaizumi to invite Makki and Mattsun along to the movie. It would ruin everything, and that absolutely couldn’t be allowed to happen a third time.

Iwaizumi tried to shake his sleeve free, but Oikawa had an iron grip. “Why are we running?”

“Uh… the previews…” Oikawa replied, finally slowing down. Then he blushed; he hadn’t realized how fast he had been going. 

It was Makki and Mattsun’s fault that he was in such a hurry, and because of them, he wasn’t going to have any snacks for the movie. Although, he was saving himself a lot of cash by skipping the concession stand. So maybe he would thank those two stalkers later—that is, as long as they stayed away from him and Iwaizumi for the rest of the night.

“We can always look up the previews later.” 

“It’s better on the big screen,” Oikawa muttered, leading Iwaizumi to the correct theater, which was at the very end of a long hallway. He had been peeking over his shoulder to make sure that Makki and Mattsun weren’t following them—they weren’t, thankfully. 

They walked into the dark theater that smelled like popcorn and nostalgia, and to Oikawa’s surprise, it was almost totally empty. That was kind of strange—the movie they were seeing had only been out for a week, so the place should have been packed full of moviegoers. 

However, it was the very last showing of the day, and it was also a Sunday night. Most people wouldn’t intentionally watch a scary movie that late on a work night, since it was quite likely to keep them awake afterwards. So there were only two other people in the theater, and they were sitting right in the center of the front row.

Oikawa shook his head in disapproval, since he couldn’t imagine choosing to sit there when the whole theater was available. It was like asking for neck pain and a headache. Then he studied their silhouettes for a little longer; something about them seemed familiar. But it was too difficult to see clearly in the dark, even when the big screen lit up as a preview came on. He and Iwaizumi were just in time for the start of them.

When Iwaizumi made his way to the middle of the farthest back row, Oikawa followed along after him, and he couldn’t be more pleased about it. That was the best spot for a couple to sit—especially if they were going to kiss at some point, which felt like a real possibility.

Although, he knew that Iwaizumi usually only picked that spot because he liked being able to view the whole screen from a distance, without the risk of anyone kicking his seat from behind. But the kicking concern didn’t really apply with the theater being as empty as it currently was, so it was just Iwaizumi’s habit to sit in the back row. And that’s why they ended up there.

However, Oikawa was still feeling hopeful as he let his imagination run a little wild. There was a teeny-tiny chance that Iwaizumi chose the most private place for them to sit while watching the movie for intimacy reasons. Maybe he was even expecting that Oikawa would get scared and come running into his arms, as unlikely as that was to actually happen. Oikawa didn’t scare that easily.

Iwaizumi yawned after they had settled into their seats. His twelve hour shift at work must have thoroughly drained him, so he was really going out of his way and being indulgent by coming out this late, which was something Oikawa had already considered. He was feeling very thankful about it. 

Once his long yawn was over, Iwaizumi spoke as he turned to look at Oikawa. “Are you sure you don’t want snacks?”

Oikawa did want snacks. But Makki and Mattsun were out there, and they might ask Iwaizumi if they could come back with him—so he couldn’t risk letting him go to the concession stand. And he also didn’t want to go out there himself; he didn’t feel like putting up with those two anymore that evening. 

“I’m fine, Iwa-chan. I ate something not too long ago,” Oikawa said. “Besides, the food here is so expensive. It’s just not worth it.”

Iwaizumi slowly went to stand up. “Well, I think I’ll go get something.”

“Wait,” Oikawa said as he grabbed the bottom hem of Iwaizumi’s jacket. He immediately realized how weird that probably seemed, but he just couldn’t let Iwaizumi go out there. The stakes were too high. He was literally going to scream if he had to put up with sitting next to Makki and Mattsun during the movie. They would talk the whole time and ruin the vibe.

There was a long moment of silence as Iwaizumi stared down at where Oikawa was grabbing his jacket. His expression went from surprised, to curious, to irritated, and then he smacked at Oikawa’s hand. “Let go, dumbass. I’m getting snacks.”

“Don’t go,” Oikawa begged as he clung tightly to Iwaizumi’s jacket, trying to think of a believable excuse. 

But then he saw Makki and Mattsun slip into the theater just a few seconds later. The pair sat in the same row as him and Iwaizumi, selecting seats that were close to one of the entrances. But it wasn’t the one Iwaizumi would use—it was on the opposite side of where he and Iwaizumi had come in.

So Oikawa let out a sigh of relief. They weren’t that close to him, and at least he could keep an eye on them now.

“Why won’t you let me go?” Iwaizumi asked, continuing to smack at Oikawa’s hand. “I don’t care about the damn previews. I just want some popcorn.”

Oikawa released his hold on Iwaizumi’s jacket and gave a quickly thought up explanation. “I just meant… don’t go until I’ve given you money, so you can grab some chewy candies for me.”

After letting out an annoyed huff, Iwaizumi reached over to ruffle Oikawa’s hair, doing so in a way that could be taken as either aggressive or affectionate. It was hard to say one way or another. “Keep your money. I’ll buy the candy myself.”

“Aw, thanks,” Oikawa said as he settled into his chair, though he was carefully watching Makki and Mattsun out of the corner of his eye. “You’re so sweet, Iwa-chan.”

“Shut up, dumbass. It’s only ‘cause you bought the tickets,” Iwaizumi grumbled. Then he turned to walk towards the nearest door, but he paused after just a couple of steps and spoke without turning around. “Is there anything else you want besides chewy candy?”

Oikawa was in the middle of flipping Makki off—only because Makki had flipped him off first. So he quickly dropped his hand as he glanced at Iwaizumi’s back, which was softly illuminated by the light on the big screen. Something about the sight of him made Oikawa’s mouth feel dry as his heart started to race. There was a wave of determination to win Iwaizumi’s confession, and nervousness over the intimate things that might follow if he were successful. 

“Uhm... something to drink would be good.”

“Kay,” Iwaizumi said as he started walking again. 

Oikawa waited until Iwaizumi was gone before getting up and stomping over to Makki and Mattsun. “Same time, same place, and same movie as us? That’s so original.”

“Imitation is the greatest form of flattery,” Makki said as he casually grabbed a handful of popcorn from the bucket that was on his lap. Pieces fell when he was eating it, and some kernels got stuck in his fake beard.

Meanwhile, Oikawa shot back a reply in a mocking tone. “Since this was from your notebook, aren’t you just imitating yourself?”

Mattsun had stuck his ridiculously thick glasses into the front pocket of his white shirt, apparently having grown tired of them impairing his vision. He had also taken off his bow tie.

But his shoulder-length wig and white eyebrows were still stuck on, which made his sudden exaggerated wink look much more ridiculous. “You’re actually the one imitating him, young man.”

Makki nodded hard enough to make his glasses fall to the floor. His shaggy grey wig also came loose again, but he ignored both of those things in favor of chiming in with his aged-up voice, grinning as he spoke. “And I appreciate the compliment, my dear boy.”

Oikawa ignored Makki and eyed the assortment of snacks that his two friends had on their laps. He would have stolen several boxes of candy, if not for the fact that Iwaizumi would then wonder where he had gotten them from. “I don’t know why I’m even friends with you guys.” 

Mattsun took a long slurp of his drink, then replied in an aged-up rasp. “You’ve just got good taste, son.”

“But I sense bad luck in your immediate future,” Makki added, speaking in a way that was meant to replicate a fortune teller. He started thoughtfully stroking his long beard, which still had bits of spilled popcorn littered throughout it.

Meanwhile, Mattsun hummed in agreement, giving Oikawa a sympathetic look. “Very bad luck.”

“Terrible luck.”

“The worst of the worst.”

“Woeful misfortune.”

“Calamity.”

“Disaster.”

“Tragedy.”

“Doom.” 

“Stop trying to curse me!” Oikawa snapped.

Then it occurred to him that his two friends might have something sketchy planned that would fulfill their warnings—which was enough to crush the last of his dwindling patience.

So he stuck his tongue out while pulling down the skin under one of his eyes, grabbing a large handful of Makki’s popcorn afterwards. “This is my compensation for having to put up with you date crashers.”

“Hey, you’re the one crashing our date right now,” Makki retorted in his most elderly-sounding way. “And stealing from us, too! Tsk tsk. Young people these days don’t know the value of manners.”

“And where’s the gratitude?” Mattsun asked, flipping his fake white hair with a dramatic toss of his head. “We stood in line for three whole minutes to get that popcorn, and we paid with hard earned money.”

“I bet your mom gave you the money that bought this,” Oikawa mumbled with a mouth full of popcorn. 

“That’s right—and she worked hard for it,” Mattsun quipped as he went to open one of his boxes of candy. 

“These might get stuck in your dentures, darling,” Makki remarked in his old man voice, taking some of the candy from Mattsun’s box and popping it into his own mouth.

Oikawa rolled his eyes and stole more popcorn from Makki’s bucket. “Oh, stop. Mattsun doesn’t have dentures.”

“Who says he doesn’t? Have you looked in his mouth? Are you his dentist?” Makki demanded as he grabbed his cane from where it was hooked over the seat in front of him. Then he poked at Oikawa with it, breaking out his old man voice again just for added theatrical effect. “Now get off my lawn, whippersnapper!”

“Ouch! Quit it,” Oikawa complained. He reached for more popcorn, then ran back to his seat with both hands full of it. 

Meanwhile, the people at the front of the theater seemed annoyed by the commotion. One of them even let out a loud, “Shh!”

“Oh, calm down,” Mattsun croaked out irritably in his aged-up voice. “It’s just the previews!”

There was another, “Shh,” from whoever it was up front. 

After that, there was a long shouting match between one of the people in the front row and the pair of elderly impersonators—who stuck with using their raspy old man voices.

“Cram it, you rascal!”

“Shhh!” 

“Quit yer yammerin’!” 

“Shhhh!” 

“Hold your tongue!”

“Shhhhhhhhhh!”

“Pipe down!”

“SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

“No, you SHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!”

Oikawa’s eye was twitching as the back and forth went on and on for another few seconds. Finally, he couldn’t take it any longer, especially since Iwaizumi was going to be back any time. So he took a deep breath, then yelled as loud as he could. 

“WOULD EVERYONE JUST SHUT THE FUCK UP!?!”

There was silence after that.

Oikawa enjoyed being able to hear the previews and the sound of himself crunching away at his stolen popcorn. He finished it right in time, because Iwaizumi came back with an arm full of snacks just as he was swallowing the last piece.

“Here,” Iwaizumi said as he offered a drink and several boxes of candy to Oikawa. “I got a few different ones.”

“Thanks, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa replied happily. His grumpiness from dealing with the other people in the theater had vanished now that Iwaizumi was there with him again.

So he contentedly stacked the candy boxes on his lap before having some of the cold drink—which was refreshing after having just yelled so loudly at his ‘elderly’ friends and those two random strangers. The details of this sort-of-date were already destined to be remembered in great detail, but there were certainly a lot more layers than expected, and the night still had a long way to go. 

Iwaizumi was quiet as he settled into his seat. Then he started eating the popcorn he had bought for himself, letting out multiple yawns within the first few minutes of being back.

But that was to be expected—it was already kind of late, and he had woken up before seven that morning. The fact that he had agreed to come to such a late showing at all was a small miracle. 

Oikawa began sneaking handfuls of popcorn from Iwaizumi once the movie started. It was a large bucket, so sharing some of it wouldn’t hurt, especially if he didn’t get caught in the act.

But he wasn’t nearly as stealthy as he had intended to be.

His snack thievery was discovered right away, thanks in great part to the sound of him crunching on the popcorn. It was hard to cover that up thanks to how quiet the first few scenes of the movie were.

However, Iwaizumi just sighed in defeat and leaned the bucket closer to Oikawa, speaking quietly as he did so. “I should’ve known you’d take my food.”

Oikawa reached into his box of gummy worms and offered one to Iwaizumi, whispering in a playful tone. “I don’t mind sharing with you.”

Instead of taking the gummy worm with his fingers like a normal person, Iwaizumi grinned softly and leaned in closer, eating it right from Oikawa’s hand. He even maintained eye contact as he chewed it, and he kept that soft grin on his face the whole time. It was as if he was displaying some type of dominance—or maybe he was trying to irritate Oikawa as payback for taking popcorn from him. 

If so, the joke was on him, because Oikawa wasn’t irritated at all. 

But he was definitely surprised. His face and ears went bright red, and he turned to look at the screen as soon as he could make himself move. He was very thankful that his blush wouldn’t be visible in the dark theatre. His heart was racing, and he kept thinking back to the feeling of Iwaizumi’s lips touching his fingertips, which also reminded him of their almost-kiss from the night before. So he nearly made the mistake of bringing the fingers that Iwaizumi’s mouth had touched to his own lips.

Thankfully, he stopped himself midway and reached for his drink instead. He didn’t know what he would have done if Iwaizumi saw him rubbing his lips like some kind of love-sick fool. 

Oikawa Tooru may be a little love-sick, but he was no fool. 

Was he a dumbass sometimes? 

Yes—but only when Iwaizumi said so. That was practically a term of endearment when it came from him.

Oikawa became so flustered from that one little gummy worm incident that he couldn’t focus on the movie at all. The only thing he could think about was Iwaizumi’s lips pressing against him in various places, which was giving him goosebumps and making his pulse quicken.

He couldn’t even bring himself to look back over at Iwaizumi again. Part of him was deeply afraid that Iwaizumi would be able to tell exactly what kind of inappropriate things he was thinking about if they made eye contact. 

He realized that he was wasting the opportunity that this evening was supposed to be providing for him, since he was currently trying to avoid showing any sign that he was aware of Iwaizumi’s existence. But he couldn’t possibly have known how intense it would be when he was almost completely alone with Iwaizumi in a dark theater, after having literally fed him by hand. 

It was a bit too much. A lot too much, actually. And it was embarrassing. 

So he kept his hands to himself and mindlessly ate his own candy, trying (and mostly failing) to follow what was going on in the excessively gory movie playing on the big screen. He couldn’t even tell if it was any good or not thanks to his lack of focus, and it definitely wasn’t scaring him.

It just didn’t hold his interest when Iwaizumi was sitting right beside him, especially when they started sharing the armrest that was between them. 

Oikawa’s arm was there first, but then Iwaizumi casually laid his own on top, like there was nothing weird about it at all. The sleeves of their jackets were separating their forearms, so none of their skin was actually touching.

But it was still thrilling.

Oikawa’s heart was racing as if he and Iwaizumi were doing something that would have been much more indecent for a public setting.

After a couple of minutes, Oikawa worked up his courage and peeked over at Iwaizumi to see if he was showing any signs of freaking out over their modest display of affection. 

However, Iwaizumi had his head leaned back against his chair, looking like he was completely at ease.

But he seemed to sense Oikawa’s gaze on him, and he turned his head, grinning softly once they were making eye contact. He looked really good in the gently flickering light from the movie screen.

And the way he was staring so tenderly made it seem like he was reaching into Oikawa’s body to caress his very soul—which was both unexpectedly intimate and deeply panic-inducing, to put it mildly.

Oikawa suppressed a squeak, immediately turning to look forward again. His blush was back in full force, and his heart was pounding even harder than before. He could hear it in his ears and feel it in his fingertips, which once again reminded him of Iwaizumi’s lips touching him there. 

Admittedly, he was having a full course freak out right there in that theater seat. So he swallowed hard, trying to calm himself down, and then avoided glancing over at Iwaizumi for the rest of the movie. 

But he was definitely feeling like a total dumbass the entire time—and not in the endearing way. There he was trying to get Iwaizumi to confess to him, yet he couldn’t even work up the courage to look his way. It was ridiculous. He felt like he was backing down from a challenge, which wasn’t like him at all. Never before in his life had he acted so damn bashful.

Makki and Mattsun were going to laugh him into oblivion if they found out about it. Although, they were actually surprisingly well behaved during the movie. Not once did they make their presence known to Iwaizumi, and they didn’t do anything to annoy Oikawa, which made him wonder if they really were just on a date.

But if that was true, the other things they said might have been true as well—kinky sexual preferences included.

Countless images of Makki and Mattsun privately hanging out in their elderly foreigner disguises flooded Oikawa’s mind, and he really didn’t like what they were doing in those mental images. That alone was enough to throw cold water over him, metaphorically speaking. He suddenly found himself much more level headed than he had previously been. 

Once the credits of the movie started rolling, he finally looked over at Iwaizumi, trying to be casual about it. 

That’s when Oikawa discovered that Iwaizumi was fast asleep. He was in the same position as before, with his head relaxed back and one arm still on top of Oikawa’s. But his eyes were closed, and he was breathing steadily as barely audible snores escaped him. He seemed so peaceful there as he slept under the soft glow of the end credits. 

Oikawa stared at Iwaizumi silently, unable to look away. He even thought about holding Iwaizumi’s hand for a little while. Their arms were already touching, so it wouldn’t take much effort, and it wouldn’t count as doing it first if Iwaizumi couldn’t remember it. But he decided against it right as the main theater lights came on, since it would feel kind of creepy if he actually did that. 

The change in brightness didn’t phase Iwaizumi at all. He just kept on sleeping there in his seat, like it was the most comfortable place for a nap in the entire world. 

For the first time ever, Oikawa didn’t have an immediate desire to mess with Iwaizumi while he was asleep. He was too busy memorizing the sight of him. This was something he wouldn’t get to see again after he left for Argentina—at least, not for a very long time.

Meanwhile, Makki and Mattsun noticed the situation now that there was better lighting in the theater. But they didn’t come over to investigate, nor did they try to draw on Iwaizumi—which they had done in the past after he had fallen asleep in public. Instead, they stood up and stretched, then got ready to leave. They were probably feeling too tired for any extra mischief; it was already midnight. 

Makki did hold up his cane before he was out of earshot. He used it to make lewd gestures by stroking it with his hand, whispering just loud enough to be heard. “Wow, did you wear him out already? I’m impressed.”

Oikawa flipped Makki off with the hand that wasn’t trapped under Iwaizumi’s arm.

Then he watched them leave the theater, trying to decide what he should do. Sitting there all night wasn’t an option—though he was enjoying the feeling of their arms touching and wasn’t in a hurry to move. He was still debating about how long to stay seated when he heard a familiar voice coming from a few feet away. 

“Oikawa Tooru and Iwaizumi Hajime. What a strange coincidence to find you here.”

Oikawa instantly shuddered as that deep voice assaulted his ears. He already knew who had spoken, even before he turned to look over towards the aisle, where Ushi-motherfucking-waka and his red-headed monster sidekick were standing arm in arm.

Apparently, they were the two people who had been sitting at the front of the theater, with no regard to the pain they were going to cause their necks from picking such a horrible place to sit. 

All of a sudden, Oikawa realized that Makki and Mattsun were right earlier. He really did have bad luck—the worst of the worst. Maybe they had been referring to this, and maybe that’s why they didn’t stick around to irritate him. There was someone far more annoying who could do the job. 

There was no fate crueler than this. 

Oikawa didn’t know how those bastards had done it, but this was somehow part of their plan. They provided such tempting opportunities with the notebook ideas, and secretly had a way to counteract each one. It’s like they were always two steps ahead.

It was a complete outrage, and it was downright disrespectful towards the whole purpose of the IwaOi notebook. 

What kind of friend-shippers didn’t want the friends they were shipping to actually ship? 

Those gremlins were obstructing the happy ending that Oikawa and Iwaizumi so thoroughly deserved, which was totally unforgivable.

While Oikawa internally raged over the unspeakable crime committed by his two so-called friends, Ushiwaka seemed to be waiting for some type of acknowledgement. But he eventually got tired of waiting and tried again. 

“Did you enjoy the movie, Oikawa-san?”

“‘Did you enjoy the movie?’” Oikawa echoed in a mocking tone. Then he tossed his hair with a huff. “Of course I did. It was lovely, except for when someone was annoying the entire theater with their shushing at the start of it.” 

Tendou gave a very cat-like (here meaning predatory) smile, then spoke in a tone that was somehow both amused and vicious at the same time. “So that was you who yelled at me to ‘shut the fuck up,’ was it?

“So what if it was?” Oikawa asked irritably, debating with himself about whether or not he should wake Iwaizumi up, just so there were fair odds if he had to fight these two oafs in hand-to-hand combat.

Which he was totally not afraid of doing, by the way.

He could take on Ushiwaka with his eyes closed and both hands tied behind his back, because there were two perfectly good feet attached to his legs, and he knew exactly where to kick to cause the most damage.

The real problem was Tendou, who seemed like the type to bite people and claw at their eyes during a fight. But he wouldn’t be impossible to beat as long as one had enough determination and spite, both of which Oikawa was well supplied with. 

However, Tendou was still the wild card in this situation.

And that meant Oikawa needed to take him one-on-one while Iwaizumi dealt with Ushiwaka. After all, the ace should fight for his setter in trying times like these. It would just be a little ace-on-ace violence while Oikawa brawled with that feral middle blocker. 

But all of that mental processing about how to best take down Ushiwaka and Tendou in a fight ended up being unnecessary. 

“We won’t interrupt your date any longer. Farewell, Oikawa-san,” Ushiwaka said, wrapping his arm around Tendou’s waist and turning to escort him out of the theatre. “Be safe as you travel home.”

“Thanks, bitch,” Oikawa muttered under his breath, feeling both flattered and annoyed that Ushiwaka mistakenly thought he and Iwaizumi were on a real date.

He deeply wanted it to be one, even if Iwaizumi wasn’t aware of that.

Ushiwaka didn’t seem to hear Oikawa’s parting words, but Tendou sure did. He gave Oikawa a very sharp look while letting Ushiwaka lead him out of the theater.

He even gestured from his eyes towards Oikawa with two fingers, then threateningly mouthed the words, “I’m watching you, BITCH.”

Oikawa calmly watched Tendou leave, exuding an air of total confidence, keeping it up until he was completely out of sight. That was the way to deal with wild animals: not giving in to anger, and not letting them get the high ground.

Or maybe that was how to deal with something else. He couldn’t quite remember.

After those two intolerable people were gone, Oikawa turned to look at Iwaizumi, who had somehow slept through the entire exchange without moving an inch. He was out like a light. 

An insatiable desire to mess with Iwaizumi finally ignited in Oikawa at that point. It was all he could do to keep himself from seeing how much annoying stuff he could get away with before Iwaizumi woke up and yelled at him. His willpower was just too weak when it came to messing with Iwaizumi, so he ended up reaching over to poke at his face within a few seconds of looking at him. 

But all Oikawa got for his playful efforts was finding out that Iwaizumi seemed to have a fever.

In fact, he was really hot—and not just in terms of being attractive.

It was no wonder he had been acting so strange earlier by eating from Oikawa’s hand and giving such soft grins; he was probably delirious from his high temperature. 

To make matters worse, Oikawa’s parents were still out of town.

That was very good when wanting to have his potential lover sleep over without the risk of any interruptions, should things get interesting—but very bad if said potential lover was suddenly unable to walk himself to the train station, because now he couldn’t just call one of his parents for a ride.

He had also purposely chosen the theater that was the farthest from where he and Iwaizumi lived in an attempt to throw Mattsun and Makki off his trail, and that was now a major obstacle. 

The last train was set to leave in a half hour. It would take fifteen minutes to walk to the station for two athletic guys, but that time would probably be tripled if one of them was unable to walk faster than a ninety-year-old—a real one, not like that pesky pair of impersonators. 

Without moving his trapped arm out from under Iwaizumi, Oikawa pulled out his phone and started scrolling through his contacts. He needed someone to come help him get Iwaizumi home. And no, he wasn’t going to ask Thing One and Thing Two for their help. Those insufferable brats had already done more than enough to complicate things. 

Besides, Mattsun’s family didn’t have a vehicle, and Makki’s parents probably wouldn’t let him use their car. They were both terrible drivers anyway—it just wouldn’t be worth the risk.

Oikawa found a hopeful solution when he came across the contact information for his sister. When no one else was willing to bail him out of desperate situations, she had always come through for him.

That’s what older sisters were for.

So he sent her a text to see if she would respond, then waited for a few minutes. He didn’t want to call, because if his sister’s phone volume was turned on, there was a chance of that waking his nephew up. And he knew better than to mess with his nephew’s sleep schedule.

His sister wouldn’t hesitate to find a cruel way to teach him a lesson, since that’s also what older sisters were for.

Thankfully, it seemed like Oikawa’s bad luck was finally improving. His sister texted back saying she would come get them right away, and since her house was actually pretty close to the theater, it would only take about fifteen minutes for her to get there. 

While feeling a great sense of relief, Oikawa breathed out a sigh. Then he gently shook Iwaizumi’s shoulder to wake him up so that they could go wait outside.

“Iwa-chan… Iwa-chan… come on, it’s time to get going.”

Iwaizumi groaned and fluttered his eyes open, then fell asleep again right afterwards. 

“Iwa-chaaaaaaan,” Oikawa said as he insistently poked at Iwaizumi’s cheek, which was reddish from the fever, slightly sweaty, and hot to the touch.

Seeing Iwaizumi like this made him realize that he didn’t want to be away from him when he was so sick. Instead of getting him home, he would much rather take care of him at his place. But he decided to give Iwaizumi a choice in the matter.

“My sister’s coming to get us, Iwa-chan. Do you still wanna sleep over, or do you wanna go home?”

Without opening his eyes, Iwaizumi replied in a sleepy murmur that sounded pitiful. He was obviously feeling very unwell. “You… dumbass.”

“Are you calling me a dumbass because you’re grumpy?” Oikawa asked as he calmly studied Iwaizumi’s flushed face. “Or are you saying you want to stay with my dumbass?”

“Stay,” Iwaizumi replied weakly as he opened his eyes half way.

Then he stared at Oikawa with another soft grin while grabbing his hand, which was easily done. Their arms had still been stacked on the armrest. 

Oikawa once again found himself blushing over Iwaizumi’s actions. But he didn’t get washed away in freaking out this time, because he was too focused on how hot Iwaizumi’s fingers felt. The fever was really high.

He gently squeezed Iwaizumi’s hand, then laid his head against his shoulder, deciding that they could go ahead and sit inside the theater for a few more minutes.

As he sat there beside his best friend in the whole entire world, he suddenly started thinking about how hard it was going to be once they were living in different countries. There were so many things about Iwaizumi that he was going to miss: his smile, the way his laugh sounded, his affectionate teasing, the smell of his cologne, how gruff his voice could be when he was irritated, the way he was so protective, his thoughtfulness, the general feeling of being around him—there was nothing he wouldn’t miss.

He loved everything about him, and he really wanted to tell him that. 

But there was something Oikawa hadn’t admitted to himself yet. He was deeply afraid that Iwaizumi didn’t love him in the same way, despite how hopeful he was that the opposite was true, and despite the way that Iwaizumi had almost kissed him on two separate occasions over the past couple of days. 

He was also worried that Iwaizumi wouldn’t want to change their relationship, even if he really did feel the same way. A long-distance relationship would certainly be hard on both of them—maybe it didn’t seem like it was worth the effort.

What if Iwaizumi didn’t think Oikawa was worth it? That he was worth loving, even if it was going to be a challenge?

The sound of his sister texting to announce her arrival snapped Oikawa out of that negative train of thought. He let out a shaky breath as he carefully pulled his hand away from Iwaizumi’s, slowly standing up afterwards.

Iwaizumi had fallen back asleep again, so Oikawa left him alone for a minute while he gathered their trash and disposed of it right outside the door of the empty theater. Then he came back and helped Iwaizumi get up—though it took quite a bit of effort to rouse him enough in order to accomplish that. 

Once Iwaizumi was finally standing, Oikawa put an arm around his waist to help him along.

Even though Iwaizumi could barely keep his eyes open, he seemed to understand the general idea of what was happening. So he put one of his arms over Oikawa’s shoulders as they walked. And after a minute or two, he mumbled something weakly.

“Sorry, Oikawa.”

“There’s no need to be,” Oikawa replied as they slowly made their way out of the cinema. And they appeared to be the last two customers, because someone came and locked the large glass doors at the front of the building right after they had walked through them. “I don’t mind helping you, Iwa-chan. And I’ll take good care of you once we get home.”

“Thanks,” Iwaizumi replied with another soft grin, which must have been the fourth or fifth of the evening.

And he was having a hard time walking, so he was leaning heavily on Oikawa. He probably wouldn’t be able to get very far without support.

Once they made it to the parking lot, Oikawa helped Iwaizumi into his sister’s car, then scooted in close to him for the drive. He was feeling a little worried; it had been a long time since Iwaizumi was so noticeably sick.

But he felt better knowing that he would be able to personally watch over him all night. And the next day, too—assuming Iwaizumi would need to spend it in bed, with Oikawa there to carefully nurse him back to health. 

As they made their way towards Oikawa’s house, his sister wasn’t much for conversation. She had been about to go to bed before receiving the text for help. So she was exhausted, and therefore not in the mood for small talk. 

Then there was Iwaizumi, who had fallen asleep as soon as he was seated in the car. He was silently leaning against Oikawa’s shoulder as he slept, and his fever continued to burn at a concerningly high temperature. 

So the car ride was a silent one. 

When they made it to Oikawa’s house, he carefully helped Iwaizumi inside and took him to his bedroom. It was a slow process. Iwaizumi was totally out of it, and he was getting weaker with each passing minute. He had to completely rely on Oikawa’s strength.

After they finally made it to the bedroom, Oikawa helped Iwaizumi strip down to his boxers, which would have been exciting under different circumstances. But it was currently serious business, so Oikawa didn’t allow himself any thoughts that would get in the way of taking excellent care of his beloved Iwa-chan. 

He helped Iwaizumi lie down in his bed, and he didn’t mind sleeping on the floor this time, since Iwaizumi was so unwell. But this certainly wasn’t what he had been hoping for when it came to how the night would end. His plans had been more along the lines of Iwaizumi becoming scared of sleeping on the floor after the movie, then crawling into bed with him—not taking over his bed entirely. 

But it was alright. Iwaizumi deserved the most comfortable place to sleep, so that he could rest up and get better quickly. 

Oikawa decided that it wasn’t necessary to be grumpy about having another plan fail, because it couldn’t be helped that Iwaizumi got sick. Some things were just completely out of his control—that was a fact he had recently started working towards accepting, though he still struggled with the concept from time to time.

He went to get the spare futon from the hallway closet after Iwaizumi was all tucked in, setting it up on his bedroom floor. Then he grabbed an extra few blankets from under his bed. It was cold overnight at the end of March—even more so than usual, it seemed. The house was especially frigid at the moment.  

So he quickly changed out of his clothes, slipping on an old shirt and his favorite volleyball club sweatpants. After that, he got a glass of water from the kitchen and brought it back to the bedroom, leaving it on the nightstand for Iwaizumi just in case he got thirsty overnight. He also got a washcloth wet and carefully laid it on Iwaizumi’s forehead.

Then he pulled the blanket up higher on Iwaizumi’s chest, thinking himself a very capable caregiver. 

Even though it felt kind of strange to admit, he was actually glad that he was getting a chance to care for Iwaizumi like this before they were separated by the distance of following their dreams. There was no telling when he would have another chance to do so.

Since it was nearly one in the morning at that point, Oikawa felt totally exhausted. So he gave Iwaizumi a gentle goodnight pat on his chest before turning around, intending to go lie down on the futon. But then Iwaizumi suddenly caught his wrist and tugged on it. 

Oikawa looked down at Iwaizumi, who was peeking out from under the edge of the washcloth on his forehead. The dampness of it must have woken him up. And once again, he was giving another soft grin, though it was also a really weak one. He seemed so delirious that it was kind of sad—but also kind of cute.

“What’s up, Iwa-chan? Are you thirsty?” Oikawa asked as he pointed his free hand towards the nightstand. Iwaizumi had his other hand in a grip that would have been easy to pull away from, but he was humoring him by keeping it there. “I left some water right here for you.”

“C’mere,” Iwaizumi murmured drowsily. 

In response, Oikawa leaned closer. He thought Iwaizumi wanted to say something without having to talk above a whisper—which was probably all he could manage at that point. 

But that’s not what Iwaizumi had meant. He tugged at Oikawa’s wrist again, and it seemed as if he thought he was pulling harder than he actually was.

“C’mere, dumbass.”

Oikawa felt his ears go red. It was almost like Iwaizumi wanted him to come cuddle with him, but maybe he was actually just trying to be polite. “I already have the extra futon set up on the floor, Iwa-chan. You can have the bed to yourself.”

“C’mere,” Iwaizumi repeated, sounding stubborn.

He was insistently pulling at Oikawa’s wrist, but he didn’t have the strength to accomplish anything more than communicating what he wanted—which seemed to be sharing a bed for the first time since they were kids.

Oikawa became flustered out of his mind for the second time that evening.

The request caught him completely off guard, and he knew that he couldn’t say no under the circumstances. Iwaizumi looked way too cute when he was acting all needy and affectionate. And he was well aware of the fact that Iwaizumi was wearing only boxers, but at least he himself was fully clothed. So he wasn’t going to immediately combust from excitement once he crawled into bed with him.  

“Alright, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa said as he pulled back the covers, not looking at Iwaizumi’s bare chest and abs, which was to avoid giving his imagination any extra fuel. He didn’t want to lay awake for hours getting lost in fantasies for the second night in a row. “Scoot over a bit.”

Iwaizumi did his best to make room in the small bed as Oikawa climbed in beside him. Then the two of them cuddled up together, which was actually kind of miserable for Oikawa, contrary to how he had imagined this scenario in his head earlier in the day. Not only was Iwaizumi very hot in a very literal sense, but he was also acting uncharacteristically clingy. So there was no escaping his extremely warm embrace. 

On the bright side, the nighttime chill wasn’t noticeable at all anymore.

Despite how overheated Oikawa had become, he felt really happy as he drifted off to sleep. It was impossible not to be thankful when the person he loved was holding him so close. He may not have gotten a confession from Iwaizumi yet, but at least he got to share a bed with him—even if all they did was sleep.

Besides, he could just win Iwaizumi’s confession with the next idea he had selected from the IwaOi notebook. It was a little more complicated and expensive, but it was also a sure thing. And there was no way those two chaos-loving gremlins could mess it up.

Chapter Text

Early the next morning, sunlight was shining through the window right onto Oikawa’s face. It didn’t often hit him directly like that—he usually slept close enough to the wall to be out of the way. So the brightness woke him up earlier than usual, and he groaned softly as he tried to stretch his body.

But there was something warm wrapped around his waist.

When he reached down to feel that something, he realized that it was two arms. 

That’s when he remembered that Iwaizumi was in bed with him. And he was cuddling him close like it was his absolutely unquestionable right to do so, which was kind of bold for someone who didn’t even have the guts to confess. But it was both excusable and desirable. Oikawa liked it, and he wasn’t about to put a stop to it. He would even be fine staying like that all day. 

However, Iwaizumi felt just as feverish as he had the night before, and that was as concerning as it was uncomfortable. 

So Oikawa was inclined to get up and make Iwaizumi drink some water, which would also allow himself to cool off after a long night of being bundled up with the personal space heater version of his best friend. And that’s just what he did—or rather, what he was going to do. 

But he got sidetracked when he pulled the blanket off of himself and saw that Iwaizumi was in just his boxers. His eyes widened as he tried to look away, but he couldn’t. He hadn’t been expecting such a view right when he first woke up. Iwaizumi was one thin piece of fabric away from being totally naked, and he was pressed right up against him. 

Well, of course Iwaizumi was in just his boxers. Oikawa was the one who had undressed him and helped him into bed the night before—it shouldn’t have even come as a surprise at all. 

But he had forgotten about it, and it was much more distractingly impactful when they were pressed against each other, so he had a brief moment of panic as he felt his ears warm up. Then he stared at Iwaizumi without moving for nearly a full minute.

Part of him wanted to put the blanket back over them so that he could snuggle into Iwaizumi’s embrace again, but the more rational part of his brain was telling him to get some water into Iwaizumi as soon as possible. It couldn’t be good for him to be running such a high fever for so long without any fluids. 

Despite knowing that he needed to get up and take care of Iwaizumi, he really wanted to just stay right where he was for as long as possible. It wasn’t every day that he got to wake up wrapped in Iwaizumi’s partially nude embrace. This was a moment that he was always going to remember, and he wasn’t ready for it to end.

However, that intimate moment wasn’t meant to last any longer.

Iwaizumi started coughing against the side of Oikawa’s shoulder just a few seconds later. It sounded both gross and painful, and it went on for a very long time. 

That’s what finally prompted Oikawa to sit all the way up and untangle himself from Iwaizumi’s arms. After all, he wasn’t that keen about getting coughed on. Then he swung his legs out of the bed and reached for the glass of water that was sitting on the nightstand, holding it towards Iwaizumi after the coughing died down. 

“Here, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa said. “Have a drink.”

Iwaizumi opened his eyes right before he started coughing again, though he aimed it into his elbow this time. Once his second coughing fit finally subsided, he took the glass from Oikawa, speaking with a rasp in his voice. “Thanks.”

With concern written all over his face, Oikawa watched Iwaizumi drink the water down. The cough was a new symptom, and it sounded like Iwaizumi’s throat was hurting.

Then he suddenly remembered something that made things even worse.

He had a shift starting at work in just a couple of hours, and it would be hard to find someone to cover for him when it was so last minute. 

“I’m supposed to go to work soon,” Oikawa said as he reached up to run his fingers through his own hair, fluffing it around nervously. “But maybe I should call out and stay with you. You sound awful.”

“Don’t do that,” Iwaizumi rasped. Then he set the glass back on the nightstand. He had to clear his throat before speaking again, which caused him to grimace in pain. “I’ll be fine by myself. But is it cool if I stay here today?”

“Of course you can,” Oikawa replied hastily.

He had no intention of letting Iwaizumi go anywhere in his current condition—due to a combination of concern over his health and a desire to sneak in more cuddles later on. And he really wished he could stay in bed with Iwaizumi all morning, but he was supposed to work from eight until two. 

Those damn responsibilities were getting in the way during Iwaizumi’s time of need. He would probably require someone to check in on him at least once while Oikawa was busy at work.

Oikawa knew he was going to feel resentful that he wasn’t able to stay with Iwaizumi the whole day, because he wanted to be the one who was there with him. But the bottom line was that Iwaizumi needed care—and he was going to get it, no matter what. 

That left Oikawa mentally scrambling for a solution. He felt like he either needed to call out of work, which might cause him some trouble, or find someone who was willing to help out. And he really didn’t want to rely on Makki or Mattsun, since he was still feeling angry at them for somehow making him have to interact with Ushiwaka the night before. 

Then he remembered that his parents would be getting home from their weekend trip sometime in the next few hours. He could text them to let them know that Iwaizumi was going to be in his room, and that he wasn’t feeling well. His mom would likely insist on caring for Iwaizumi herself, which would be perfect, because then he wouldn’t have to worry too much while he was gone for his shift. 

“I’m gonna go back to sleep,” Iwaizumi mumbled drowsily, followed by another long and painful round of coughing. 

“Alright,” Oikawa said as he stood up and stretched his body. 

Once Iwaizumi was done coughing, Oikawa tucked him in under the blanket and gave him a few gentle pats on his chest, since that’s what his mom always did for him whenever she put him to bed when he was a kid. He had always found it comforting, and he wanted to extend that comfort to Iwaizumi. 

“I’ll refill your water and get some crackers to leave on the nightstand,” Oikawa said as he turned away. “Then I’m gonna run through a quick shower.”

A quiet, “Mmm,” was the only acknowledgement from Iwaizumi. He was nearly asleep already.

Oikawa did as he said he would, leaving fresh water and crackers on the nightstand before taking a shower. He took his time while he was there, since he was feeling a little stiff and sore from sleeping at a weird angle to accommodate Iwaizumi’s insistent snuggles all night—not that he was complaining.

If a few aches and pains every morning was the only price for getting to sleep next to Iwaizumi for the rest of his life, he would gladly accept it.

That was preferable to waking up alone and being apart from each other, which was what he was facing in the near future.

After the shower, Oikawa got dressed and went to the kitchen so that he could decide what to make himself for breakfast. But he had no appetite. He was feeling too worried over Iwaizumi’s health, and he was depressed from thinking about their impending separation.

He was also starting to feel guilty that Iwaizumi had gotten so sick. It was probably from getting dragged out to the lake two nights ago. If they hadn’t gotten all wet, then maybe Iwaizumi wouldn’t have caught such a bad cold. They were only out there in the first place because Oikawa wanted to get his way. So naturally, he was feeling kind of responsible for Iwaizumi’s current struggles.

Once he had given up on trying to eat an actual meal, he settled for black tea and a piece of buttered toast. He ate it silently over the sink while thinking of ways to help Iwaizumi feel better, though he didn’t have many ideas. The only thing he came up with was to bring him a cup of tea.

He went back to his room after making Iwaizumi some herbal tea, leaving it on the nightstand. That’s when he saw his phone and remembered that he still needed to text his mom. So he unplugged it and softly sat on the edge of the bed, being careful not to disturb Iwaizumi in the process. 

But he was surprised by what he saw once he unlocked his screen. There were over twenty messages from Makki and Mattsun from the previous night. His phone was still on silent from seeing the movie, so he hadn’t heard them. And he had been too distracted by trying to get Iwaizumi safely home—followed by being distracted from getting pulled into bed with him—to worry about who may have been trying to contact him. 

So he scrolled through the messages in the group chat that the three of them had made—which was called Notebook Discussions—to read what those two gremlins had gone off about, just to see if anything important was said. But it was all a bunch of annoying nonsense. 

Cream_puff: hey champ, how’d the date go??

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: seemed like you really took it out of Iwaizumi ;)

Cream_puff: yeah, did anything good happen during the movie????? 

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: we made sure to stay out of your way

Cream_puff: yeah and you better appreciate that. because it took a lot of willpower

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: for real. he was fighting his natural instinct to eavesdrop like it was the most important thing in the world. I’m so proud of him

Cream_puff: that’s right. it was a deep personal sacrifice. one I may never recover from

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: how should he make it up to you, babe?

Cream_puff: for starters, I’d like to know what he did to wear Iwaizumi out during the movie… cause he was sleeping like a log there at the end

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: did you guys play with each other’s canes, if you know what I mean? ;);)

Cream_puff: we played with ours when we got home ;) 

Cream_puff: with each other’s, I mean ;) ;)

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: that’s right. and the wooden cane may have come into play at some point ;) ;) ;)

Cream_puff: oh, come on Oikawa. we’re only joking. stop ignoring us

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: just tell us how it went. we’re dying from curiosity over here 

Cream_puff: already on my deathbed

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: it’s true. he’s looking really pale right now. about to give him cpr

Cream_puff: too late. already dead. the only thing that can revive me now is the dirty details

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: see what you did, Oikawa? my boyfriend is dead. people are gonna think I’m weird for dating a corpse

Cream_puff: you’d still date me even though I’m dead???

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: obviously. you’ll still be hot no matter how cold your skin gets

Cream_puff: aaaawwww that’s so sweet :”) i’d legit be blushing if i wasn’t dead

Cream_puff: also, FUCK YOU Oikawa!!! give me those details asap or I’m coming for you

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: come for me first

Cream_puff: come over here then

MyEyebrowsAreUpHere: brb Oikawa. gotta roll over and give my man something

And that was where the conversation cut off, with the last message having been sent at about half past one in the morning.

Oikawa was deeply disturbed by what he had just read. He had to stop himself from immediately throwing his phone at the wall to remove the evidence of how his eyes had just been defiled, and he decided not to dignify that weird string of discourse by giving a response. 

Instead, he focused his attention on texting his mom, giving her a detailed overview of the current situation. 

She got back to him quickly, letting him know that she and his dad would be home in an hour and a half. That was perfect timing. Oikawa needed to leave for work in an hour, so Iwaizumi would only be left alone for thirty minutes. 

Then his mom sent another text to say that she would be sure to make soup and tea for Iwaizumi as soon as she got there, which was exactly what Oikawa had been hoping to hear. 

As far as the next hour went, Oikawa spent most of it on his bed beside Iwaizumi. There was nowhere else he would rather be, and he impressed himself with how quiet and still he was able to stay during that time, since he didn’t want to wake Iwaizumi up during the periods of rest that came between all the coughing fits. 

But it was impossible to keep his hands to himself. Within the first few minutes, he was pressed against Iwaizumi’s body. Then he put an arm over him so they could cuddle. He almost fell asleep while he was there, and he definitely would have, if not for all of Iwaizumi’s loud coughing.

When there was only fifteen minutes until Oikawa needed to leave the house, he stood up and got himself dressed in his work clothes.

Then he spent the remainder of that time fixing his hair.

He was the face of the convenience store when he was there helping customers, so he needed to look good whenever he was working a shift—especially because his fan club from high school had somehow found out where he worked after just a few days of him starting the job. 

Once he was satisfied with how his hair looked, he walked back into his bedroom and sat on the edge of the bed again. Then he gently shook Iwaizumi by the shoulder. “I’m going to work now, Iwa-chan. But my parents will be home in thirty minutes, and my mom said she’s gonna make you soup and stuff, okay?”

“Mhm,” Iwaizumi replied tiredly. Then he had another coughing fit that sounded especially painful, which he contained in the crook of his elbow. Once it subsided, he spoke again, sounding raspy and out of it. “Don’t be dumb at work... with those… those, uh… girls that always show up.”

Oikawa stifled a laugh. It wasn’t like Iwaizumi to bring his fan club up in an almost jealous sounding way, and it could only be attributed to the fact that he was so feverish. He was amused when he stood up, but he paused briefly to reach out and put his hand on Iwaizumi’s forehead, just to check his temperature after such a delirious statement. He was worried that his usually grumpy and gruff Iwa-chan was getting turned into a soft sweetheart because his brain was getting fried.

Iwaizumi surprised Oikawa by reaching up and grabbing his wrist. But it wasn’t to stop Oikawa from touching him—it was to hold Oikawa’s hand in place on his forehead as he spoke with his eyes closed. “Have a good day.”

“Thanks, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa said, feeling flustered and fluttery. He kept his hand on Iwaizumi’s forehead for a full minute as he waited for his wrist to be released. But Iwaizumi didn’t let go, and he was going to be late if he didn’t leave at that point. So he gently (and quite reluctantly) pulled his hand free. “I’ll see you later.”

“See you later,” Iwaizumi mumbled without opening his eyes. He pulled his arm under the covers once Oikawa took his hand back, and then rolled over to face the wall as he settled in for sleeping again.

Oikawa stared at Iwaizumi for several more seconds before turning to leave. He was feeling such a strange sense of gratitude over getting the chance to care for Iwaizumi while he was sick before leaving the country, but it was also breaking his heart. 

Who would care for Iwaizumi if he got sick while he was going to school in California? 

And who would care for him when he got back to Japan afterwards? 

How would Oikawa take care of him from all the way in Argentina? 

Those questions—and ones that were similar—bounced around Oikawa’s mind the entire time he was commuting to work. And they stayed with him once he got there. Even though he always put on his best smile whenever a customer came into the convenience store, he was harboring a deep sadness over the changes that were coming.

The next ten weeks just weren’t going to be enough.

But there was no other way; sacrifices had to be made if he was going to reach his goals. He just really wished that spending time with Iwaizumi wasn’t one of the things that he had to give up in order to move forward.

The hours at work dragged by more slowly than usual, probably because Oikawa was so eager to get back home and check on Iwaizumi. He was having a really hard time focusing on the small talk he had to make whenever members of his fan club lingered longer than necessary after making their purchases.

Normally, he enjoyed the attention, basking in it. But now it just felt annoying. It was like an obstacle or distraction from what he wanted to be doing—as if the members of his fan club were somehow getting between him and Iwaizumi. 

That silly thought made him downright irritable.

So when 2:00 was finally nearing, he was desperate for his shift to end. He kept watching the clock as the last twenty minutes slowly ticked by. But unfortunately, there was another obstacle he would have to face before he was released from his cage.

Kageyama and Hinata walked into the convenience store together when there was barely ten minutes of his shift left. 

It was a Monday, so they should be in school, where they couldn’t annoy Oikawa with their presence. Except that it was the end of March, meaning it was their spring break. But they were both dressed in clothes that made it seem like they had just come from volleyball practice, and they recognized Oikawa right away once they had grabbed their purchases, which were just two popsicles. 

Oikawa groaned internally as they came up to the checkout counter, though he managed to force a stiff smile. He couldn’t be too unfriendly towards customers—even if it was these two dream wreckers.

“It’s the Great King!” Hinata exclaimed, setting his popsicle on the counter so he could pull out his wallet.

Kageyama did the same, then bowed slightly. “Oikawa-san.”

Oikawa bit his tongue for a moment. Even though it was super annoying to see two of the people who had stolen his last shot at nationals from him, he was glad that they had taken Ushiwaka down a notch. He had also heard what happened during Karasuno’s final game during nationals, and he knew how hard that must have been, so he felt kind of bad for them. After all, he wasn’t totally heartless.

But that didn’t mean he had to be nice.

“If it isn’t the two crows that couldn’t quite reach the top,” Oikawa said in a taunting manner, which always came out automatically for him whenever Kageyama was around. 

Hinata’s face suddenly flushed with emotion, but he quickly covered the pain with a smile. “I’m proud of my team! We made it to nationals, and we all did our best!”

Ouch—right in Oikawa’s sensitivity about never making it to nationals. He grimaced slightly as he scanned the two popsicles.

Meanwhile, Kageyama nodded in agreement. “That’s right. And we can try again. We’ll make it even further next time.”

Bam—that hit Oikawa where it hurts the most. He didn’t get a next time. Not when it came to nationals, or playing with his team, or setting to Iwaizumi during an official game. And he wanted nothing more to do with these two vicious crows, what with their vile attacks disguised as pleasantries and positivity.

So he cleared his throat as soon as they were finished paying, then nodded towards the door, giving them a sarcastic peace sign. 

“Well, it’s been real fun catching up. See you never.”

Kageyama looked surprisingly curious, especially considering how he tended to look like a brick no matter what, in Oikawa’s oh so humble opinion. “Are you really going to Argentina, Oikawa-san?”

Oikawa sighed irritably. The purchases had been made. The customers had been serviced. Yet he was being subjected to more small talk—and about his personal life, of all things.

“Who told you that?”

“We ran into Ushiwaka the other day,” Hinata announced cheerfully, as if he were proud of that fact for some reason. “And he told us about it!”

Ew.

Ew, ew, ew, ew.

Why was Ushiwaka spreading his personal business around, and why did he even know about that?

He suddenly felt like he should have fought Ushiwaka at the cinema when he had the chance. 

“How lovely that you’ve all become so close,” Oikawa said through his teeth. He was trying to keep himself from cussing out paying customers, which was probably a strict no-no when it came to the rules of conduct for his job as a cashier.

A pair of familiar voices sounded just then. And despite Oikawa’s feelings towards them after the conversation he regrettably read through that morning, it was a great relief to hear them at that moment. He somehow felt like he had just been saved.

“Well, well, well,” Makki said as he marched up to the register, sliding himself between Oikawa’s field of view and the two crows that were pecking him to death just with their presence. 

“What do we have here?” Mattsun added, slipping in next to Makki.

The two of them leaned back against the counter and crossed their arms, completely blocking Oikawa from having to deal with Hinata and Kageyama anymore. 

“Are you boys lost?” Makki asked, using a tone that was intentionally patronizing and unfriendly.

Mattsun was giving them a hard stare. “Crows don’t usually fly around here.”

Hinata and Kageyama had sharp enough instincts to realize that they were being challenged, and they somehow had enough intelligence to know that they should make themselves scarce. So they glanced at each other briefly before taking a few steps back. 

“If you’ll excuse us,” Kageyama mumbled. Then he bowed his head and turned around, quickly heading towards the door. 

Hinata gave a friendly wave before leaving, since he was apparently a cheerful ball of sunshine whenever possible. It would probably be hard for anyone to hold a grudge against him for very long.

However, that short exchange actually made Oikawa nauseous, and he had a headache coming on from dealing with those two crows. So he let out a long sigh once they were out of the store. He felt like they had taken his energy with them when they left.

And maybe that was Hinata’s secret to being so energetic. He just absorbed it from those around him, like a weird little parasite who was playing at being a soft ray of sunshine.

At that point, Makki and Mattsun flipped around, leaning their elbows on the counter. They were giving Oikawa matching looks of concern.

“What were those guys saying to you?” Makki asked as he studied Oikawa’s face. “You look really upset.”

“Yeah,” Mattsun added. “We rushed in here when we saw them talking to you ‘cause you looked like you were about to throw something.”

Oikawa put his elbows down on the counter in front of Makki and Mattsun, dropping his face into his hands.

Then he replied in a weary, pitiful voice. “They invaded my personal space when I was already having a really hard day.”

“What’s making today so hard for you?” Mattsun asked sincerely—though he seemed like he really wanted to make a joke about what things Iwaizumi could make hard, or something like that. 

“Just got a lot on my mind,” Oikawa replied grumpily, since his head was throbbing in pain now.

It was amazing how Kageyama and Hinata could have such a dramatic impact on him. 

“Y’know, we originally came here to interrogate you in person because you never responded to all our messages,” Makki said as he started poking at the top of Oikawa’s head. 

“You even left us on read,” Mattsun pointed out, joining in on poking at Oikawa’s hair. 

“But it seems like things didn’t go as well as we thought they did,” Makki said. He stopped assaulting Oikawa’s scalp, switching to playfully shaking Oikawa’s arm, which was being used to support the weight of his head.

“Would you stop that?” Oikawa snapped as he quickly stood up straight and backed away, since getting poked and shaken was making his headache even worse.

But then he almost fell over; he was feeling extremely dizzy all of a sudden.

Makki and Mattsun immediately reached out to grab Oikawa by the wrist, each catching one. They barely managed to save him from falling backwards. 

“Whoa there,” Mattsun said, passing Oikawa’s wrist to Makki so that he could hold both of them. Then he walked around the counter to stand beside Oikawa. 

“You not feeling good?” Makki asked as he held onto Oikawa’s wrists to keep him steady. “Oh, damn. You’re really hot.”

Meanwhile, Mattsun wrapped his arms around Oikawa’s waist, holding him up from behind. “I think we should take you with us. Is there anyone else coming in for a shift soon?”

“I’m... here for my shift,” came a voice from near the front of the convenience store. It was a woman that Oikawa worked with, and she looked really confused over finding her coworker being held from behind by a guy she didn’t know, while some other guy held his wrists from across the counter. “Wh—what’s going on here?”

“Huh?” Makki looked from Oikawa’s coworker down to where he was still holding Oikawa’s wrists, then let them go and put his hands behind his back, flashing an innocent smile. “Nothing to be concerned about.”

“Our friend here is just feeling sick,” Mattsun said right after that, dragging Oikawa out from behind the register. “We’re gonna go ahead and take him home now.”

“Your timing is actually perfect,” Makki said to Oikawa’s coworker as he went to stand near Mattsun.

Oikawa was feeling rather out of sorts, but he was still aware enough to feel embarrassed over being dragged around like a ragdoll. So he smacked at Mattsun’s arms in an attempt to make him let go of his waist.

“Quit it, Mattsun. I can walk by myself.”

“If you insist,” Mattsun replied as he let go and stepped back.

Oikawa immediately went crashing down onto the floor. His legs had given out on him, just like that.

Makki shook his head and clicked his tongue. “They always think they’re so independent once they’re grown up.”

“Poor little tike is all worn out,” Mattsun said with a nod. “But who’s carrying him to the train station?”

Makki twisted his mouth and hummed thoughtfully. “Rock-paper-scissors, loser carries first?”

“Alright,” Mattsun agreed as he held up a closed fist.

And after three quick rounds, he ended up losing. 

“Ha! You’re way too predictable,” Makki teased. Then he nodded down towards where Oikawa was still crumpled on the floor. “You carry him to the station, and I’ll carry him from there to his house.”

And so Mattsun leaned down while Makki helped him get Oikawa onto his back. 

Afterwards, Makki ran over and grabbed a face mask from one of the aisles, leaving some money for it on the counter.

Then he put it over Oikawa’s mouth and winked. “Bright pink looks good on you.”

That whole time, Oikawa’s coworker looked like she wasn’t sure whether or not this was actually a kidnapping. It was certainly an odd thing to witness right after showing up for work. She was even subtly reaching for her cell phone, making it seem like she was going to call someone for help. 

Luckily, Oikawa’s fall knocked a little clarity into him. So he waved a hand dismissively at his coworker, then spoke in a voice that was muffled by his mask. “It’s alright. These guys are my friends. Gonna take me to Iwa-chan.”

The confused coworker gave a slight nod and stopped reaching for her phone, though she still seemed wary. “Text me when you get home, Oikawa-san. So I know you made it safely.”

“Will do,” Oikawa murmured, giving her a friendly peace sign, which was actually very different from the sarcastic one he had given those two crows just a few minutes earlier.

But only Iwaizumi would have been likely to recognize the difference. 

Unfortunately, Oikawa started having a lot of trouble focusing on anything other than the pain that was ripping through his body, and it wasn’t from his fall. His headache was now accompanied by body aches from being sick. It wasn’t surprising, since he had also gotten wet when Iwaizumi did, and had been cuddled up with a sick person all night.

Once they were outside, Makki patted Oikawa’s shoulder. “You told her we’re taking you to Iwaizumi, and I hate to break it to you, but we’re actually taking you home.”

“Yeah,” Mattsun added, walking with Oikawa on his back. “He won’t want your sick germs.”

“He’s already got them,” Oikawa mumbled from behind his mask.

He had his eyes closed, because the sun was being way too extra for him to deal with at the moment. The sky had no business being so damn bright when decent people weren’t feeling good.

“Oh really?” Makki grinned as he walked alongside Mattsun, glancing at Oikawa curiously. “Did you guys participate in activities last night that would lead to—say—bodily fluids being exchanged?” 

“He’s in my bed right now,” Oikawa replied, trying to think clearly over the noise of his pain, which was screaming at him from every inch of his body. Then he reached to adjust his mask so that it would be more comfortable when he spoke again. “He’s been there since last night.”

Mattsun tried to look over his shoulder at Oikawa, and his eyebrows were raised high in surprise. “He’s been in your bed all day? So you guys went all the way last night, and he needs to… recover?” 

“That’s not how I was expecting it to go,” Makki mused aloud, more to himself than anyone else. 

Mattsun looked thoughtful for a moment, then nodded in understanding. “Hit it until it breaks, huh?” 

Oikawa shook his head in denial, which made it feel like his brain was being slammed around. So he groaned quietly from the pain before defending himself. “No, Iwa-chan got sick last night. And he’s sick today. At my house.”

“Oooooooh,” Makki and Mattsun said together, glancing at each other with matching expressions of slight disappointment and sudden comprehension. 

“That makes sense,” Makki said decidedly as he put his hands in his pockets. “So that’s why he was asleep, huh?”

“Mhm,” Oikawa grunted softly.

He was feeling like absolute crap, and he was getting worse by the minute. Poor Iwaizumi must have been feeling the same way since the end of the movie the previous night—the symptoms really did come on quite intensely. 

Makki let out a long, almost amused hum. “Well, this works out great! Did you read anything out of the Sickness Related Confessions section?”

“No,” Oikawa replied after a pause, because he was fighting a strong wave of nausea. “I’ve only read about half of the notebook. It’s so damn thick.”

“That’s what he said,” Mattsun said without skipping a beat. But then he spoke in a serious tone. “Wait… aren’t most of the ideas in that section related to terminal illness?”

“I believe so,” Makki remarked as they all approached the train station, which was close to the convenience store that Oikawa worked at. “Most of those end with one of them dying.”

“What curses did you write in there?!” Oikawa asked with an irritated pout, though it was hidden by his mask. And he spoke too loud, making his head hurt even worse, so he ended up grimacing from the pain.

“Oh, calm down,” Makki said, showing no trace of regret over what types of ideas he had put down on paper. “There were at least a few where it was just a common cold.”

“I remember one where Oikawa took care of Iwaizumi, and that made him realize that Oikawa could actually take care of others sometimes,” Mattsun said as he adjusted his hold on Oikawa, moving him higher up on his back. 

“I don’t wanna think about that stupid notebook right now,” Oikawa grumbled as another wave of nausea hit him. “I feel like I’m gonna puke.”

Mattsun peaked over his shoulder and made a face. “Try not to get it on me, if you do.”

“At least the mask will slow it down,” Makki said. Then he reached into Oikawa’s pocket to pull out his wallet, doing the same to Mattsun afterwards. He scanned each of their rail passes as they entered the station. 

After that, the three of them boarded the train, where Oikawa was carefully set down on a seat. Mattsun and Makki sat on either side of him, each with one arm behind him so that he could rest his head back. It only took twenty minutes to get to their stop. 

During that entire train ride, Oikawa felt like he was getting smashed all over. His head hurt, his body hurt, his throat hurt—everything hurt. But at least the nausea wasn’t getting any worse. It was barely noticeable over the other symptoms he was dealing with, though he was having a hard time thinking about anything in general. All he wanted to do was sleep. 

Once they got to the right stop, Makki took his turn carrying Oikawa, squatting down in front of him and lifting him up with an exaggerated grunt. “Gonna throw my back out for sure.”

“You can do it,” Mattsun said, walking beside them. “We’ll take turns doing massages later.”

“Ah, that sounds good. I’ll do it for the massage,” Makki said as he carried Oikawa off the train. 

Since Oikawa was barely conscious anymore, Makki and Mattsun didn’t bother him with any further conversation. They walked along in silence, and a short while later, they made it to Oikawa’s house, where Oikawa’s mom met them at the door. 

“Oh dear,” she said, stepping out of the doorway so that Makki could carry Oikawa inside, with Mattsun trailing behind them. “Did he catch what Iwaizumi has?”

“Seems like it,” Mattsun replied as he slipped off Oikawa’s shoes, followed by his own shoes. Then he leaned down to help Makki with his shoes, since Oikawa still needed to be carried.

Oikawa’s mom reached out to feel his forehead. “Ah, you’re burning up. Looks like it’s right to bed with you. Would you boys mind helping him there?”

“Sure thing,” Mattsun said, leading the way.

“Try to be nice and quiet,” Oikawa’s mom added before they were too far down the hallway. “Iwaizumi’s sleeping.”

When the three of them went into Oikawa’s bedroom, Makki carried Oikawa to the bed, sitting him on the edge of it. Then he glanced at Iwaizumi, who was sleeping soundly, aside from the occasional cough. After that, Mattsun and Makki worked together to get Oikawa out of his work clothes. 

Makki put his hands on his hips once Oikawa was down to just his boxers. “Should we give him a bath before putting him in bed?”

“Maybe,” Mattsun said as he went to stand next to Makki, staring at Oikawa with a thoughtful expression. “It might help him feel a little better.”

“No bath,” Oikawa grumbled, turning around to crawl under the covers. He just wanted total silence, cuddles from Iwaizumi, and lots of sleep.

Mattsun went to tuck Oikawa in, though he paused before shoving the blanket under the edge of his body, giving a playful grin. “Do you prefer sleeping naked? I could take those underwear away for you.”

“That would be the best treatment,” Makki said, trying to sound serious and mature. “Skin to skin is supposed to be good for a fever. You two should be touching as much as you can, in as many places as possible.”

“Fuck off,” Oikawa managed to murmur as he pulled the blanket away from Mattsun’s hands.

Then he cuddled up against Iwaizumi—because of course he was going to touch him as much as possible. He wanted comfort, and he had a really bad case of the chills. So he felt that he legitimately needed Iwaizumi’s warmth.

However, Iwaizumi woke up when Oikawa started wiggling against him. As a slight cough shook him, he peeked an eye open, looking at Makki and Mattsun in surprise. Then he glanced down at where Oikawa was wrapped around him.

“What are you doing, dumbass?”

“Don’t be mean to him,” Makki scolded, wagging a finger. “He’s really sick.”

“Yeah,” Mattsun said as he crossed his arms. “He fell over at work, so we had to carry him back here.”

Iwaizumi seemed like he was feeling just as sick as Oikawa, though deep concern crossed his features after he heard that. “Seriously?”

“Yep,” Makki said as he turned to leave the room. “So be extra nice.”

“Make him feel wanted,” Mattsun advised with a wink. Then he went to follow Makki, speaking over his shoulder. “That way, you won’t have to deal with as much of his whining.”

Once they were alone, Iwaizumi reached to feel Oikawa’s forehead—not that it was helpful to do so, since they were both equally feverish. “You’re feeling sick, huh?”

“Mmmm,” Oikawa groaned sleepily.

He wanted less talking and more cuddling, preferably in complete silence. Doing anything else felt like way too much work. He just didn’t have it in him to speak anymore, and every sound he heard was making his headache feel even worse.

“Sorry you caught it,” Iwaizumi said softly, right before another cough shook him, which also jiggled Oikawa around. “Just rest, okay? We’ll probably feel better tomorrow.”

“Mmm,” was the only response Oikawa could manage.

His eyes were closed and he was already mostly asleep, so he wasn’t really listening that closely to what Iwaizumi was saying. He also wasn’t quite aware of the fact that Iwaizumi had pulled him closer, nor did he notice that Iwaizumi’s fingers brushed his hair back, followed by something soft pressing against his forehead.

However, Oikawa’s mom had seen the whole thing from where she stood in the doorway of the bedroom, with two cups of tea in hand. She was tenderly looking at the way her son was curled up against his best friend. She saw how Iwaizumi was holding Oikawa close, and she also saw the way Iwaizumi had kissed Oikawa’s forehead. 

“It’s just like when they were kids,” she murmured to herself, smiling at distant memories.

She was referring to the time Iwaizumi had stayed with them for seven whole days, back when his parents were out of town. That had been when he was right around ten or eleven years old. Oikawa and Iwaizumi both got sick for almost the entire week, so much of it was spent in bed. They had insisted on staying together—mostly because Oikawa cried if Iwaizumi was out of his sight.

At one point, she happened to witness Iwaizumi innocently kiss Oikawa’s forehead when they were curled up together fighting their fevers. It had been just as full of concern and admiration as the forehead kiss she had just seen, though the type of love behind it seemed different this time. 

“Some things stay the same... and some things change,” Oikawa’s mom whispered as she crept into the room, having waited until Iwaizumi and Oikawa appeared to be fully asleep.

She left the cups of tea on the nightstand, then stood near the bed for a few seconds to stare at the two sleeping men—who had just been young boys only yesterday, it seemed like.

“A lot more will be changing once you both move away. Oh, I do wonder if you’ve finally figured out your feelings for each other.”

Chapter Text

Oikawa and Iwaizumi spent a total of two days in bed together. They slept through most of it, though there were vague memories that seemed like faint whispers in Oikawa’s mind: a hand caressing his face after a painful coughing fit, a hug when he was shivering from the chills, and that soft pressure against his forehead—which happened several different times. 

Unfortunately, Iwaizumi recovered first. This was unfortunate because it meant he could go back to work on the third day. He was as good as new at that point, aside from a very slight lingering cough. And it was also unfortunate because there was no longer an excuse for him to continuously stay in bed with Oikawa. 

So Oikawa didn’t get more than those two days of clinging to Iwaizumi, and to further add to the misfortune of the situation, he ended up being horribly sick for a full week. The illness hit him hard, and he could barely get out of bed that whole time.

Then it took another week after that for him to regain his energy and feel like himself again. So he missed a lot of work, which meant losing out on a good chunk of the money he was trying to save up. And he also felt like he had wasted two weeks of the remaining time he had to spend with Iwaizumi—even though Iwaizumi had come to see him almost every day to check on him. 

But not once did Iwaizumi confess his feelings, despite having many opportunities to do so, and despite the fact that Oikawa was so sick that it could have been the last chance Iwaizumi would ever have.

Okay, maybe that was a slight exaggeration.

But there were certainly low points during that period of illness that made Oikawa feel like he was going to fulfill one of the IwaOi notebook’s more dramatic Sickness Related Confessions scenarios. 

However, Iwaizumi was still acting as stubborn as a mule, and time was running out. It was enough to make Oikawa want to scream.

There was barely eight weeks left before his flight to Argentina. That was just sixty days, which felt like nothing compared to the years of friendship that he and Iwaizumi had been able to share. It was going to pass by way too quickly, no matter what, and without any consideration over how much pain there would be when the day of separation finally arrived. 

Time was cruel like that.

Even though Oikawa’s wallet was not as well lined as he was hoping it would be at that point, he still decided to go ahead with the next idea from the IwaOi notebook. But it was one that would cost him all that he had saved up from the few weeks he had been at his part-time job, as well as a large portion of the money he had been squirreling away over the past year from babysitting Takeru for his sister. And that meant he wouldn’t be able to afford any of the other ideas he had liked—so the one he was going with was kind of a last ditch effort.

He would need to save everything else he earned from his part-time job if he wanted to have the necessary spending money to start his new life in Argentina with plenty of comfort. 

On the off chance that the idea he was going with didn’t work, he would have to flip through the notebook again in hopes of finding something much cheaper (meaning completely free), and he would probably have to significantly lower his standards as far as what type of thing he was willing to try.

But his self-respect could be thrown out the window as long as he finally got a confession from Iwaizumi, who he loved so damn much, even though he was so damn stubborn.

And no, he wasn’t going to cave and be the one to confess.

This was a win he wasn’t willing to give up on.

Iwaizumi had to be the one to confess to him; there was no other way. He needed to know that Iwaizumi wanted their relationship to advance to the next level, and he craved the reassurance that Iwaizumi thought a relationship with him was worth it—that he himself was worth it. 

He would never admit that he was afraid of being rejected by the person he cared most about in the entire world.

Or that he was worried Iwaizumi would accept his feelings out of a sense of loyalty just because of how much they had been through, and then live to regret it.

Or that Iwaizumi was the only person who had the power to break his heart so badly that it would never be whole again. 

Why would he ever openly admit to any of that?

Those were the kinds of things he liked to bury deep enough to be forgotten about most of the time, only to be brought out when he was lying in bed at three in the morning, mulling over all of his regrets and all of the mistakes he had ever made—as one does. 

Rather than facing his deep-rooted insecurities and working up his courage to confess on his own terms, it was so much better to just go ahead with the next plan to get Iwaizumi to confess.

And it was a sunny Wednesday when Oikawa decided to make it happen.

He settled on that day of the week for two reasons: firstly, neither he nor Iwaizumi had a shift scheduled; secondly, the location for the sort-of-kind-of-date was going to be much less crowded in the middle of the week—especially since spring break had already ended. 

April had finally arrived; the new school year was just beginning. 

That meant Yahaba, Watachi, and Mad-dog were in their third year, with Yahaba as the new captain of the team. Kunimi and Kindaichi were now second years—they were both full of potential that would continue to grow. And there would also be a whole new batch of first years, who would need to be supported properly so that they could perform their best and learn where they fit into the team. 

Oikawa felt a sense of longing for the past when he thought about all of that, but he knew Yahaba would make him proud as the new captain. He just hoped that his old team would absolutely crush Karasuno when they got the chance. And of course, Shiratorizawa also needed to be kicked off their pedestal.

That’s what was on Oikawa’s mind as he walked to Iwaizumi’s house.

They were meeting there before heading out on their besties-who-should-be-lovers outing, as Oikawa had decided to mentally refer to it, and that outing was actually something he had been wanting to experience for years. But not just because it was something that was common for those who were dating to go do, or because it had countless elements that could be considered romantic. 

One reason he wanted to go there was simply because it would be fun. However, the main reason was that neither he nor Iwaizumi had ever been there before, so it would be a really special thing to do together. 

The place he was taking Iwaizumi was a surprise—an actual surprise, this time. He refused to tell Iwaizumi any details about it beforehand. That was the only way he could keep Makki and Mattsun from somehow learning about the time and place of the idea he had chosen.

If there was no trail of evidence outside of his own mind and a couple of online searches, then there was no way they could find out when and where he and Iwaizumi were going. And he felt sure that this idea was the one that would win him Iwaizumi’s confession—that is, as long as those two disaster magnets were nowhere near.

Once he reached Iwaizumi’s house, he stood on the porch and sent a text announcing his arrival. Then he waited patiently for Iwaizumi to either respond or come outside, whichever happened first.

But almost ten minutes passed without any acknowledgment, and Oikawa got impatient. So he slipped off the backpack he was wearing and went to sit on the porch steps, dialing Iwaizumi’s phone afterwards.

Iwaizumi answered on the second ring, which meant he was near his phone, and therefore should have just responded to the text instead of being an inconsiderate jerk. “What?”

“What do you mean, ‘what’?” Oikawa asked with a huff. “I’m at your front door, where I’ve been waiting for thirty whole minutes. I’m aging out here, Iwa-chan. And not very gracefully.”

“You’re such a liar,” Iwaizumi replied irritably. “You texted me ten minutes ago.”

“Oh, so you did get my text,” Oikawa said as he stood up and went over to the front door, reaching for the handle as he spoke. “I’m coming inside.”

“The door’s locked.”

The door did happen to be locked, as Oikawa discovered when he tried to open it. So he pouted and leaned his forehead against it. “Why aren’t you coming out?”

“I’m… doing something,” Iwaizumi said. “Give me another few minutes.”

“Oh my god, are you pooping right now?” Oikawa asked, going over to sit down beside his backpack on the porch steps. “You could’ve just said so.”

“No, that’s not it.”

Oikawa let out a long sigh, which was filled to the brim with his ever increasing impatience. “Okaaaaay, then what exactly are you doing?”

“None of your business,” Iwaizumi replied, sounding frustrated. “I’m hanging up now, and I’ll be out in less than ten minutes.”

Iwaizumi really did hang up the phone after that, and Oikawa didn’t appreciate being made to wait without an explanation.

So he did what any reasonable person with a strong upper body would do—he went to climb over the fence so that he could walk around the house to where Iwaizumi’s bedroom window was located. 

As it turned out, climbing over a fence was much less difficult than trying to climb up to Makki’s roof. Oikawa simply reached up and grabbed the top of the fence, pulled himself up in one go, then threw one leg over followed by the other. It was as easy as that. 

He landed on the other side of the fence with a thump, then crept along the outside of the house, crouching close to the ground—not for any particular reason, other than he thought it would be fun to make a game of sneaking over to Iwaizumi’s window like a robber might.

And it certainly was fun.

He ended up having to put his hand over his mouth to keep himself from giggling, because he was imagining how funny it would be if one of the neighbors were to see what he was doing. 

It seemed like Iwaizumi might actually be pooping—though he had never been weird about admitting it before. So there was a chance that Iwaizumi wasn’t in his bedroom, which would mean Oikawa was sneaking around like a stalker for no good reason. 

However, it could be argued that peeping into his best friend’s window to catch him at whatever he was privately doing might not be a good reason, either. Or at least, not a very polite reason. But being polite to each other had never been an integral part of his and Iwaizumi’s relationship.

Within a couple of minutes, Oikawa had navigated through the thick vegetation of the garden area beside the house, which finally allowed him to reach Iwaizumi’s bedroom window.

So he very carefully—and very slowly—peeked his head up to look inside from the corner.

But what he saw was kind of confusing.

Iwaizumi was sitting on his floor with a big cardboard box open in front of himself, and he was digging through the contents of it. There was all kinds of random stuff spread out around him, and he kept pulling new things out of the box, stopping only to read any piece of paper he happened upon. But none of them seemed to be what he was looking for, because he repeatedly ended up making a grumpy face before tossing each paper aside. 

As Oikawa watched from the window, he wondered what in the world Iwaizumi was looking for, and why it was so important that it was taking priority over spending time together.

They only had sixty days left, after all.

That was just over fourteen hundred hours—not accounting for the time they would each need for sleeping and going to work. Oikawa had done the math.

And that number was slowly shrinking by the minute, so he decided to hurry things along by knocking on the window. 

The sound of that startled Iwaizumi so much that he jumped up into the air from the position he had been squatting in, then fell over as he tried to scramble around on the mess of papers and knicknacks surrounding him. It was absolutely hilarious. 

However, Iwaizumi’s expression was quite the opposite—he looked really unamused when he turned towards the window and saw Oikawa there waving at him. 

In fact, Iwaizumi looked absolutely pissed off once he realized that Oikawa was standing outside his window. 

Oikawa hadn’t seen Iwaizumi look that angry in a long time. It sent a shiver down his spine, and he was forced to follow his first instinct—which was to run away as fast as he could until he made it back to the fence.

But that was much easier said than done, since there were a lot of plants alongside the house. He ended up tripping and getting himself tangled in a bush. It took him some time to work his way out of it without ripping his clothes, and by then, it was too late. 

“Oi, Shittykawa!” Iwaizumi yelled as he stomped over to where Oikawa was sitting on the ground. “You’re such an impatient piece of shit! I said I only needed a few more minutes!”

Oikawa glanced up at Iwaizumi with a regretful expression, since he certainly didn’t mean to upset him so much.

But a stinging sensation on his arm made him look back down. There was a deep scratch along his forearm, which was bleeding pretty generously, so much so that it made his stomach lurch. It’s not that he couldn’t handle the sight of blood in general—he just couldn’t deal with the sight of his own blood gushing from his arm like a tiny garden hose.

“Iwa-chan… I don’t feel good,” Oikawa murmured as he stared at his injury, unable to look away. 

Iwaizumi’s anger boiled away instantly, leaving room for concern and mild irritation. He squatted down and pressed one of his hands right over Oikawa’s cut, speaking with an edge in his voice.

“You wouldn’t have got hurt if you just stayed on the patio and waited like a normal person.”

“I’m not a normal person,” Oikawa said as he pried his eyes away from his arm, looking up at Iwaizumi’s face instead. “I’m an amazing person.”

“Amazingly clumsy? Amazingly impatient? Amazingly dumb? Amazingly shitty?” Iwaizumi asked, keeping pressure on the cut and meeting Oikawa’s gaze with his piercing green eyes, which were currently dark and cloudy from his frustration. “They’d all fit. Choose your favorite.”

“Amazingly… sorry for spying on you,” Oikawa mumbled as he glanced away, unable to deal with Iwaizumi’s heavy stare while also feeling woozy over the fact that he was still bleeding so much.

Iwaizumi let out a long sigh, then reached one hand back as if to hit Oikawa. But that wasn’t what he was doing.

Instead, he grabbed the back of his shirt collar and pulled his shirt up over his head, keeping his other hand firmly clenched around Oikawa’s cut. He wiggled out of his shirt and slid it up his arm until it was over Oikawa’s injury, then moved his hand and used his shirt to wrap up the cut. 

It was very unexpected—and also very attractive. Iwaizumi was now sitting there without a shirt, and he had given it up on Oikawa’s behalf. 

If Oikawa didn’t already love Iwaizumi, he would have fallen for him right then and there. And he couldn’t resist the opportunity to tease him a little bit.

“Wow, Iwa-chan. You took the expression ‘give the shirt off my back’ so literally.”

“Shut it,” Iwaizumi said as he stood, pulling Oikawa up with him. “This is the shirt you gave me for my birthday last year, so you just ruined your own gift.”

Oikawa frowned when he realized that Iwaizumi’s words were true. The shirt wrapped around his arm was a specific shade of dark green, with several stripes of various other shades of green, which he had selected because it would bring out Iwaizumi’s eyes whenever he wore it. But now it was a grotesque green and red combo, like Santa Clause had somehow committed a murder in the name of Christmas with it. 

“Why’d you use the shirt I got for you?” Oikawa whined as he stared at where the shirt was wrapped around his cut, which was just above where Iwaizumi was still holding onto his wrist after having helped him up. “It took forever to find this.”

“Is it that hard to find a green shirt?” Iwaizumi asked with a roll of his eyes. Then he started dragging Oikawa towards the back door of the house. “Besides, you’re the one who ran into the bushes. So don’t blame me for being resourceful with my first aid.”

“I ran into the bushes because you had a look on your face like you wanted to headbutt me,” Oikawa retorted, feeling hyper aware of the way Iwaizumi’s hand was firmly holding onto his wrist. It was simultaneously providing him comfort and making him a little bit flustered—though everything about Iwaizumi was making him flustered lately.

“I was planning on it,” Iwaizumi said in that gruff voice of his. “It would’ve served you right after you interrupted me like that.”

“Scared you, more like,” Oikawa muttered under his breath, though he quickly spoke again when Iwaizumi glanced back at him with a glare. “What were you even doing, and why couldn’t it wait until later? We have a thing to do today.”

“None of your business,” Iwaizumi replied as they slipped their shoes off at the back door of the house. Then he pulled Oikawa inside, leading him right into the bathroom, where he gently shoved Oikawa against the counter. “Sit up there. And why won’t you just tell me what we’re doing today?”

Being quick to obey that command, Oikawa hopped up to sit on the counter and watched Iwaizumi, who washed his hands, then gathered some bandages and a few washcloths. “I can’t tell you yet. You’ll know when we get there.”

“That’s such an annoying answer,” Iwaizumi said as he started carefully unwrapping his shirt from Oikawa’s arm. Then he put some water and soap on a washcloth, dabbing at Oikawa’s cut with it afterwards.

Oikawa hissed through his teeth, because the washcloth rubbing on his cut made it sting. “That hurts, Iwa-chan.”

“Well, it’s necessary,” Iwaizumi replied in a tone that seemed more gentle than he may have intended it to be. “So deal with it.”

While keeping his teeth clenched, Oikawa waited for Iwaizumi to finish cleaning his wound, which didn’t take that long. He let out a sigh of relief once the worst part was over. And then he looked down to check his cut, though he quickly became distracted by his clothes. They were covered in blood. 

“Look at my outfit. It’s ruined,” Oikawa pouted. The morning was off to a bad start, and they hadn’t even made it to the super secret location of their kind-of-date yet. 

“You can borrow some of my clothes,” Iwaizumi stated calmly as he started to bandage Oikawa’s arm. 

Oikawa let out a groan. “Your pants aren’t long enough for me.”

“Then wear shorts.”

“But it’s still cold at night.”

“It’s only nine o’clock in the morning.”

“We may not get home until late.”

“Then wear a sweatshirt with the shorts,” Iwaizumi said as he glanced up at Oikawa with a curious look in his eyes. “And where’s this place we’re going that’s gonna eat up the entire day?”

“I already told you—you’ll know when we get there.”

“Fine.” Iwaizumi’s mouth tilted into a grumpy frown. “But I’m not staying out all day. We’re coming back by the time it gets dark out.”

“What if we’re having a bunch of fun, and you don’t feel like leaving even though it’s getting dark?” Oikawa asked as he slid off the counter, since his arm was now bandaged.

Then he slipped off his shirt and turned around to get it wet in the sink. He also grabbed Iwaizumi’s shirt, because he wanted to save it from getting stained, if possible. 

“I doubt I’ll feel like staying somewhere the entire day, even if it’s the funnest place ever,” Iwaizumi replied, getting a small bottle of hydrogen peroxide out of the cabinet.

He poured some of it over the shirts in the sink to keep the stains from setting in, and his bare chest happened to press against Oikawa’s arm while he was doing that. 

Oikawa felt his ears warm up, so he kept his eyes focused on the shirts in the sink, staring at them like his life depended on it. He didn’t want to catch sight of Iwaizumi’s body pressed against his own in the mirror. That would be too much fuel for his imagination, and he needed to keep his cool when he was navigating through the day. 

“We should run these through the washer before we leave,” Iwaizumi suggested as he finished pouring the hydrogen peroxide over the two shirts. “Want me to wash your pants?”

Oikawa peeked down at his pants, which also had some blood splattered on them. Washing them right away would be the best thing to do. However, he was slightly aroused, and taking off his pants would make it impossible to hide.

“These have to be washed a special way, so I’ll do it myself later.”

“Kay,” Iwaizumi said as he went to take the shirts from Oikawa, twisting the moisture out of them over the sink. 

Oikawa squeezed out from between the counter and Iwaizumi’s body, turning away and subtly reaching into his pocket to adjust himself afterwards. He could feel his whole face turning red as he did so. There was just something about standing together in the bathroom while half dressed that was making him get flustered again, and that something was definitely one of the many Bathing Together scenarios from the IwaOi notebook, all of which were flashing through his mind.

Those ideas may have been fun to read at the time, but now they were haunting him (in a very sensual kind of way).

“Are you feeling alright?” Iwaizumi asked. He was standing near the sink with the shirts in one hand, drying his other one off on a towel. But then he reached that hand up to feel the back of Oikawa’s neck from where he was standing behind him. “Your skin looks red right here. Is your fever coming back?”

Oikawa closed his eyes at the feeling of Iwaizumi’s touch, and memories from when they were sick in bed together came back to him. He was pretty sure Iwaizumi had touched his face and neck a lot during that time. That thought made his heart flutter, so he took a deep breath before opening his eyes again. 

“I’m fine,” Oikawa said. “It’s just all my excitement about where we’re going today.”

“Is where we’re going gonna have you out in the sun a lot?” Iwaizumi pulled his hand back, though he didn’t sound convinced. “I’m not carrying you home if your fever comes back.”

“I said I’m fine,” Oikawa insisted, moving to slip past Iwaizumi without facing him. “You’re always mothering me.”

“I wouldn’t have to if you’d hurry up and learn how to take care of yourself,” Iwaizumi said as he grabbed Oikawa’s arm, holding him back so he could leave the bathroom first. “Stay here. I’ll bring you a fresh outfit.”

“I’d rather pick something out myself,” Oikawa said, trying to follow Iwaizumi out of the bathroom.

However, Iwaizumi turned around and put his hand on the middle of Oikawa’s chest to stop him. “Don’t go in my room.”

Oikawa shoved Iwaizumi’s hand away and tried to swerve around him. He had already been curious about what Iwaizumi was doing earlier, and now he was even more desperate to find out.

“Why? Are you hiding something?”

Iwaizumi ignored the questions and grabbed Oikawa’s wrist. “Come with me to start the washer. I don’t trust you to stay out of my room.”

“And you shouldn’t, because I’m going in there.” Oikawa tried to pull free from Iwaizumi’s grasp, but it was harder than he thought it would be.

Iwaizumi dragged him all the way to the washing machine.

Once they were there, Iwaizumi used just one hand to toss the two shirts into the washer. Then he added detergent and started the load—all while keeping an iron grip on Oikawa’s wrist, which was getting painful. 

“You’re hurting me,” Oikawa said, sounding serious as he tugged against Iwaizumi’s hold.

Upon hearing the tone of Oikawa’s voice, Iwaizumi immediately let go, looking at Oikawa’s wrist with concern. “Sorry. Are you okay?”

“I’ll be better in a minute,” Oikawa replied as he turned around and made a break for Iwaizumi’s bedroom.

He almost got there. Iwaizumi tackled him to the floor right outside the door.

“You’re such a piece of crap,” Iwaizumi said, holding Oikawa down from behind. He was basically sitting on top of him, and he had Oikawa’s wrists pinned next to his head.

The situation was more than Oikawa could handle. He was still shirtless, and Iwaizumi was still shirtless, and his erection hadn’t fully gone away yet. So he started panicking and desperately tried to wiggle free.

“Stooooooooooooooooop! You’re crushing me! It hurts! You’re too heavy!”

Iwaizumi let out an annoyed huff as he let go of Oikawa and climbed off of him. “Shut up, dumbass. Your yelling is gonna scare the neighbors. Stay here while I’ll get you some clothes.”

With that, Iwaizumi went into his room and closed the door behind himself. The sound of the lock turning could be heard right afterwards. 

Whatever Iwaizumi had in there must be really embarrassing for him to be going to such lengths to hide it, and gaining the knowledge of such an embarrassing secret was a very tempting treasure. If only Oikawa could find a way inside. 

Iwaizumi came out a few minutes later, having put on a gray shirt to go with his dark pants, and he was holding an extra outfit in his arms. He immediately locked the door from the inside and closed it behind himself. There was no way to get in without the key, unless the integrity of the doorframe was to be sacrificed. 

Unfortunately, there was no way Oikawa could damage any part of the house, because Iwaizumi’s dad would have no problem tearing him a new one once he found out. Iwaizumi got his temper directly from him. Iwaizumi’s dad had known Oikawa long enough to treat him like an extra son, which included thoroughly scolding him whenever necessary. 

Nobody could keep Oikawa Tooru in line better than the grouchy members of the Iwaizumi family.

Iwaizumi threw the clothes he had picked out towards Oikawa. There was a pair of shorts, a short-sleeved shirt, and a hoodie. It wasn’t what Oikawa would have chosen for himself. The shorts were solid black, the shirt was solid green, and the hoodie was solid gray.

Solid, solid, solid.

Iwaizumi had such boring taste in clothes sometimes. It’s like he was allergic to buying himself patterned clothing, and that’s exactly why Oikawa always bought him a shirt or two for his birthday. Someone had to help him escape the simplicity of solids.

“I want a different outfit,” Oikawa said, holding up the clothes Iwaizumi had just given him with one hand.

He had already taken his pants off and was sitting with his knees pulled up to his chest, in case certain parts of him chose to misbehave again. 

“What’s wrong with these?” Iwaizumi asked as he crossed his arms, refusing to take the clothes back. “I thought you liked green, especially after you were complaining about my other shirt just now.”

“I like green on you—not me,” Oikawa corrected, still holding the outfit towards Iwaizumi, giving them a disgusted shake. “Get me something with more personality.”

“You’ve already got more than enough personality,” Iwaizumi said in a way that made it seem like an insult.

However, Oikawa grinned cheerfully after hearing that. He immediately stood up to pull on the shorts, tucked the hoodie between his legs, then slipped on the plain green shirt.

“I’ll take that as a compliment, Iwa-chan. You’re basically saying I look good in anything.”

“That’s not what I said,” Iwaizumi scoffed.

“I can tell what you meant,” Oikawa said with a playful wink. “Alright, Iwa-chan. Let’s get going. We’ve got a big day ahead of us, and there’s a long train ride to get us there.”

“Great,” Iwaizumi grumbled as Oikawa grabbed his wrist and pulled him along.

Once they were outside the house, Oikawa picked up the backpack he left on the front porch and stuffed Iwaizumi’s hoodie into it, slipping it on afterwards. It was full of stuff they would need for the fun day they were about to have.

Chapter Text

Twenty minutes later, they were at the train station. It was about a three hour ride to where they were going—much to Iwaizumi’s surprise and irritation. 

“Why the hell are we going to Tokyo?” Iwaizumi asked as he and Oikawa found seats on the train, which wasn’t too crowded thanks to it being late in the morning on a Wednesday. 

“That’s where the place is,” Oikawa answered calmly. He moved his backpack onto his lap and opened it, pulling out his blue headphones. Then he plugged it into his phone and offered Iwaizumi an earbud. “We can listen to music to help pass the time.”

Iwaizumi took the offered earbud with a sour expression on his face. “Where the hell are we even going? You know I hate surprises, Trashykawa. You better—”

“Shh,” Oikawa said, sassily pressing a finger over Iwaizumi’s lips. However, that made him blush, because it reminded him of the gummy worm incident. So he quickly dropped his hand and started some music, scooting down in his seat afterwards so that he could lean against Iwaizumi’s shoulder. “Just enjoy the ride. Life’s about the journey, or whatever.”

Iwaizumi sighed in defeat as he leaned his head against Oikawa’s. 

The three hour ride passed by exactly like a three hour ride could be expected to pass—very slowly. But there was plenty of scenery to look at as they went, and the music helped entertain them. 

After thirty minutes, Iwaizumi ended up falling asleep while he was still leaning against Oikawa. 

So naturally, Oikawa snapped several dozen pictures of them together like that so he could capture the moment. It would be fun to look back on later.

Although, Iwaizumi might not appreciate the gesture. They totally looked like a couple and it wasn’t clear yet whether that was okay. But he didn’t let that keep him from posting some of them online. He couldn’t help bragging about how comfortable they were with each other, and he may have had a slight desire to mark his territory.

During the rest of the train ride, Oikawa daydreamed about how the surprise was going to go, and because of that, he didn’t mind how long it took to travel.

Admittedly, various ideas from the IwaOi notebook were a part of his daydreams. Many of them were the totally unrealistic ones that were just fun to imagine, which was actually kind of embarrassing, since he was literally leaning up against the person he was fantasizing about.

But that didn’t stop him. 

Long trips were meant for daydreaming. 

It was about one in the afternoon when they arrived in Tokyo, and it didn’t take long to get from the train station to the surprise destination, though Oikawa kept insisting on covering Iwaizumi’s eyes as they were walking the last few minutes to get there. 

After much begging, Iwaizumi finally agreed, so they made their way down the sidewalk, moving in a peculiar way that earned them some curious looks. Oikawa was walking behind Iwaizumi with his hands over his eyes, and he was carefully directing him through foot traffic.

He may have accidentally bumped Iwaizumi into something a few times, which always earned him an elbow in the ribs and a, “Watch it, dumbass.” 

When they finally made it to the gates of their destination, Oikawa cleared his throat dramatically. “Ready, Iwa-chan?”

“I guess,” Iwaizumi replied in an uninterested tone. “But my shin hurts from whatever you just ran me into, so I hope there’s not a lot of walking involved.”

“There’s a bit of walking,” Oikawa said as he uncovered Iwaizumi’s eyes. “But it’s gonna be worth it.”

What Iwaizumi saw when Oikawa uncovered his eyes was the entrance to Disneyland, and a genuine smile spread across his lips as he stared at it. The surprise had achieved its intended effect. “No way. We’re seriously going in?”

“Yep!” Oikawa pulled Iwaizumi by the wrist until they were at the payment booth. Once there, he took out his wallet to buy their tickets. 

But then Iwaizumi got his own wallet out and shoved Oikawa aside. “I know you’re saving for Argentina, so I’m not letting you pay. At least one of us has to be responsible with your money.”

Oikawa tried to push Iwaizumi out of the way so that he could pay, because it was his idea (that he stole from Makki’s notebook), and he wanted to be the one who treated Iwaizumi. “I can afford it, Iwa-chan.”

However, Iwaizumi elbowed Oikawa right in the ribs, hitting the sore spot from all the other times he had done that while they were walking. Then he paid for their tickets with a smug grin. “I’ve got way more saved up than you do, since I don’t spend money on dumb shit. So don’t worry about it.”

“Fine,” Oikawa huffed, rubbing at his ribs. Then they took their tickets and headed inside the huge theme park. “But I’m paying for anything else we get.”

“We’ll see about that,” Iwaizumi replied in a lighthearted way. His features were lit up with excitement, and he was obviously really happy about being there. 

Oikawa felt like the plan was already successful because of that. Even if he didn’t get the long-awaited confession, his efforts would still be worth it after seeing how excited Iwaizumi had become. This was something they had talked about doing when they were little kids—though they had both forgotten about it for a long time. So now they had the chance to live out a childhood dream together, which made Oikawa feel a deep sense of satisfaction. 

But the good feelings were almost ruined by a group of clowns that were handing out balloons to children just inside the entrance of the park. 

Iwaizumi hated clowns.

That had been true ever since he was five years old, when he and Oikawa went to a party that included a few of them. Something about them had really freaked him out. It had taken him months to get over it, and he still froze in place whenever he saw one, which was something no one but Oikawa knew about.

He didn’t even realize that there would be clowns at Disneyland. It was an oversight on his part, though it’s not like he was always on high alert for where there may or may not be clowns. That wasn’t something one generally had to worry about during day to day life—and thank goodness for that. Because whenever Iwaizumi saw clowns, they ruined his mood, and Oikawa wasn’t going to let that happen.

Not today. Not during their special time together.

So he took Iwaizumi by the hand and pulled him to the right, which was the opposite direction of the potentially-plan-ruining clowns. 

To his great relief, Iwaizumi didn’t catch sight of the clowns. But he did seem to be irritated by the sudden change in their direction.

“What are you doing, dumbass? We should start with the attractions near the entrance and then make our way around.”

“I want food first,” Oikawa said as he quickly pulled Iwaizumi towards where it was safe. “We can start at a restaurant and loop around from there.”

Iwaizumi let out a short sigh, but his excited grin returned quickly. “Alright. I guess it doesn’t matter, so lead the way.”

Oikawa did lead the way. 

First they got some food from one of the themed restaurants, which was pretty tasty, though it was also quite overpriced. Oikawa’s wallet took a big hit. He was suddenly even more grateful that Iwaizumi had insisted on paying for their tickets.

When they were done eating, they got some mouse ears from a gift shop—because it was absolutely part of the experience, and Oikawa wasn’t going to let them miss out on anything. Iwaizumi somewhat reluctantly agreed to wearing his pair while they took some pictures together. And then Oikawa posted them online, since he wanted to show the world that he was on a kind-of-date with his best friend. 

After that, they went on ride after ride. But they did it in an order that didn’t make obvious sense. 

Oikawa was still watching out for and avoiding those clowns. Whenever he saw them, he would pull Iwaizumi in the opposite direction. There was no way he was going to let those creepy things ruin Iwaizumi’s first Disneyland experience.

He wanted everything about their day spent together to be totally, completely, absolutely perfect. 

The effort to maintain an atmosphere of worry-free fun and keep Iwaizumi from seeing the clowns was consistently successful. They managed to get through almost all of the attractions in the park over the next several hours, and Iwaizumi seemed to be having a great time. It was very magical—as cliché as that sounded.

However, Oikawa was getting incredibly worn out, and it was making him grouchy. It really seemed like the clowns were following them. He couldn’t be sure, but they kept appearing out of nowhere and getting closer to them each time. So he was feeling a lot of mental strain from being so watchful whenever they weren’t on rides—which felt like the only time he could let his guard down. And that was chipping away at his patience, as well as reducing his ability to enjoy being at the theme park.

Once it was starting to get dark out, they went on Splash Mountain, which was like a rollercoaster that glided over water through the inside of a big mountain. They were planning to buy the photos that were taken of them during the big drop.

But when Oikawa saw the photo that had been snapped of him and Iwaizumi, he realized that the clowns had been sitting right behind them. He hadn’t even noticed them in line for the ride.

And worse than that, they must be lurking around in the crowd of people who were exiting the ride at the present moment. 

Oikawa decided something serious needed to be done.

So he hurried Iwaizumi away from the souvenir photo area with the excuse of not feeling well, then asked him to go find him something to drink while he sat down for a few minutes near the exit. And that’s where he waited for the clowns. He watched with narrowed eyes, patiently scanning the stream of people who were making their way outside.

As soon as he spotted the two clowns that had been following him and Iwaizumi, he stood up and angrily marched up to them. They both wore thick makeup, colorful wigs, white gloves, poofy outfits, and oversized shoes. And they didn’t seem like character actors—which is what Oikawa had assumed they were at first.

“Are you trying to play a joke on me and my friend? Because it’s not funny.”

“A joke?” one of them asked, starting to pull a long string of scarves out of his sleeve.

“We never joke,” the other one said as he took out a fake flower, spraying Oikawa’s face with the water that was inside of it.

“We’re always completely serious,” the two clowns said together as they did jazz hands in a surprisingly coordinated way.

Oikawa felt like a vein was going to pop right out of his forehead as he wiped away the water that had been sprayed at his face.

These weren’t just any clowns.

They were harbingers of impending failure to acquire a-kiss-and-or-confession.

They were the two gremlins who somehow kept finding out where he and Iwaizumi were, and who seemed to have countless ways to mess up carefully laid plans. 

“Hanamaki Takahiro and Matsukawa Issei,” Oikawa practically growled, using full names to amplify the effect of his anger. They had pushed him a step too far this time—he was on the edge of losing it. “Are you two asking for untimely deaths? Because I will murder both of you and leave you in those damn spinning tea cups if you don’t get the fuck out of here.”

“Hey now,” Mattsun said as he sprayed Oikawa with more water from his flower prop. “You need to chill out.”

Oikawa reached out and grabbed Mattsun’s neck, intending to squeeze him just enough to hurt him, though he was having a hard time controlling his own strength. “Why? Why are you here? Why are you dressed like that? WHY ARE YOU TRYING TO RUIN MY LIFE?!”

“Holy shit, dude!” Makki exclaimed as he went to pull Oikawa away from Mattsun. “Stop! You’re seriously gonna hurt him!”

“Good!” Oikawa yelled. “It’s better than him making Iwa-chan uncomfortable with his fucking clown outfit!”

Mattsun let out a choking noise, since he was unable to speak. Oikawa’s hands were getting tighter and tighter around his neck.

Makki started desperately trying to pry Oikawa’s fingers away from Mattsun’s throat, but Oikawa’s anger was making him even stronger than usual.

“Let him go, Oikawa! We’re sorry for fucking with you! Please, stop hurting him!”

Oikawa couldn’t hear Makki’s words over the ringing in his ears. He was just so damn angry that his friends were once again trying to mess things up, especially after he and Iwaizumi had spent such a fun day together. It was enough to make him snap.

And there was only one person who could pull him out of it when he was like that, though it would take a little violence to get through to him. 

“OIKAWA!!”

A water bottle hit the back of Oikawa’s head, making him cry out and let go of Mattsun’s neck. Then he reached back to rub where there was a hard lump forming as tears welled up in his eyes. That aim had been right on the money, and it had been a really powerful throw. So he slowly turned around, already knowing exactly what to expect, and that’s when he saw Iwaizumi stomping over to him with an extremely pissed off look on his face. 

“What the hell are you doing?!” Iwaizumi yelled, grabbing Oikawa by the shoulders and shaking him a few times. “Are you trying to go to jail for committing assault?! Are you trying to ruin your pro career before it’s even started?! Use that fucking brain of yours once in a while, damn it!”

Oikawa was overwhelmed by everything that had happened in the past couple of minutes, and the spot where the water bottle had hit him was throbbing with pain. So he started crying as he spoke. “I didn’t want Makki and Mattsun to scare you!”

“What do you mean?” Iwaizumi asked irritably, glancing over at the two clowns. He looked them up and down with a mixture of anger and disbelief. 

At that moment, Mattsun was rubbing his throat, and Makki was patting Mattsun’s back. But they both gave Iwaizumi an awkward little wave. 

Iwaizumi seemed like he really wanted to punch someone at that point, but he probably wasn’t sure who deserved it the most. “What the fuck is going on right now?”

“They came here to mess with me,” Oikawa said, still crying. “They’ve been following us all day, and I’ve been trying to keep them away from you ‘cause you’re scared of clowns.”

“It’s true,” Makki mumbled as he stared down at his oversized clown shoes. “We were just trying to mess with Oikawa. But we didn’t know you’re scared of clowns, so we didn’t expect him to react like that.”

“Yeah. We’re sorry.” Mattsun sounded like his throat was hurting, which was quite likely after being strangled like that. 

Iwaizumi let out a very long, exasperated sigh. And he still had his hands on Oikawa’s shoulders, holding them firmly. But after he finished breathing out his obvious disappointment over who he had chosen to be friends with, he pulled Oikawa into his arms and hugged him.

“I’m not scared of clowns, dumbass. I just don’t like them very much. It wouldn’t have upset me to see them.”

“I just thought...” Oikawa sniffled. “Last time we saw one, you seemed really scared.”

Another sigh escaped Iwaizumi, though it was more affectionate than irritated. “We were nine years old the last time we saw one, Oikawa. Don’t you think I’m a little different than I was back then? A little more grown up?”

“I’m really sorry, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa whimpered sadly, pressing his teary face against Iwaizumi’s neck and grabbing the back of his shirt. “I just wanted you to have a lot of fun today.”

“I did,” Iwaizumi replied softly as he started to rub his hand up and down Oikawa’s back. “Today was really great.”

Meanwhile, Makki elbowed Mattsun, whispering in a barely audible voice. “Should we leave?”

Mattsun nodded without speaking.

So the two of them—both of whom were looking ridiculous in their clown costumes—started to back away in an effort to give some privacy. 

But then Iwaizumi looked at them with a serious expression. “Hold it right there. Since we’re all here already, we might as well get dinner together. Have you guys eaten?”

“Not yet,” Makki replied reluctantly, seeming like he felt really guilty. “But we can just split up. We wouldn’t want to get in the way of you and Oikawa’s… time together.”

Iwaizumi released Oikawa from his embrace, rubbing his eyes, then crossing his arms. “Me and Oikawa have been together all day. Besides, it’s nice to hang out all together, and we won’t get the chance to do that very much after…”

At that point, Oikawa started crying hard—both because he realized that his sort-of-date was now a casual group hang out, and because Iwaizumi had just brought up the fact that everyone was moving on in life.

It almost felt like Iwaizumi was saying he didn’t expect to keep in contact. And that was incredibly painful to hear. 

However, that was far from what Iwaizumi meant, and Oikawa would have realized that if he hadn’t already been in such an emotional state. 

“What’s with you?” Iwaizumi asked as he reached to feel the back of Oikawa’s head, prodding at where the bottle had collided with it. “Did I hit you too hard? Shit, I hope you don’t have a concussion.”

“Are we never gonna see each other anymore after I leave?” Oikawa wailed, suddenly pressing his face into his hands. “Is the next sixty days really all we have left?”

After hearing that, Makki and Mattsun stepped closer, starting to pat Oikawa’s back in a comforting way.

Meanwhile, Iwaizumi stood like a confused statue, keeping his hand on the back of Oikawa’s head. But after a few seconds, he pulled Oikawa into a hug again. “As if it would be that easy for any of us to get rid of you. You’re like a cockroach.”

“That’s right. You’re impossible to get rid of,” Makki agreed in a soothing voice as he went to hug Oikawa from one side. “I can’t wait for you to call me all the time when I’m trying to sleep.”

Mattsun nodded and joined in on the group hug, which looked rather amusing with him and Makki wearing their clown outfits. Then he spoke in his raspy just-got-strangled-by-his-old-captain voice. “You’re our Hanger Bastard.”

Iwaizumi snorted as he patted Oikawa’s back in a way that suddenly seemed really patronizing. “I forgot about that. Do you still have that hanger with Oikawa’s face on it, Hanamaki?”

“No,” Hanamaki replied, starting to thump his hand heavily on Oikawa’s back. “It disappeared from my locker.”

“I wonder if someone from the fan club got their hands on it,” Mattsun said, roughly smacking Oikawa’s back along with the other two. 

Oikawa had stopped crying after listening to his friends make jokes about their shared memories. But he also stopped because they were all banging on his back like a drum, which was getting annoying.

So he broke free from the weird looking group hug and took a few steps back. “Are we getting dinner, or what? I’m really hungry.”

“See, now there’s the real problem,” Makki said with a grin as he adjusted his bright pink clown wig. “He’s getting hangry.”

“He’s our little Hangry Hanger,” Mattsun rasped as he took off his red clown nose and put it on Oikawa instead, poking at Oikawa’s almost equally red forehead afterwards. “And he’s probably been in the sun too much today.”

“That hurts,” Oikawa complained, quickly pulling the clown nose off and rubbing at his forehead, which was very tender. That’s when he discovered that his face was thoroughly sunburned.

Iwaizumi’s face was also reddened from sun exposure. The sunscreen Oikawa packed in his backpack had been forgotten, as had his entire backpack. He realized that he had left it on the bench near the exit of Splash Mountain.

So he ran over to get it before the four of them went to dinner. 

Makki and Mattsun stayed in their clown costumes the entire time they were eating, much to Iwaizumi’s irritation. He may not have been afraid of clowns anymore, but he was still embarrassed about taking two of them to dinner. They even kept the costumes on during the train ride home.

The four of them rode together, and the three hour trip passed by quickly because of how much fun they had messing with each other, though Oikawa seemed to be getting teased the most out of everyone.

Some things would never change.

It was nine o’clock by the time they made it back to town. Makki and Mattsun got off the train first, since they were heading to Makki’s house for the night. Those two were as much of a matching set as ever. Buy one, get one free type deal—but both would always come along without payment or invitation, whether they were wanted or not.

When Oikawa and Iwaizumi’s stop arrived, they stayed together until they got to Iwaizumi’s house, which was closer than Oikawa’s. And they were both quiet during the walk. The day had been long and busy, so there was a lot to process. 

When it was time to go separate ways, Oikawa found it hard to say goodbye, and it wasn’t just because he was feeling disappointed about not winning Iwaizumi’s confession. It was also because he didn’t want such a good day to end, and because he didn’t want his time with Iwaizumi to be over. Not now, and not when he left for Argentina.

So he was deeply considering whether he should finally accept that this was another game he wouldn’t be winning. Maybe he needed to give in and confess first, since he really didn’t want to waste their last sixty days together. 

But then Iwaizumi’s voice interrupted that thought process.

“Hey, Oikawa.”

Oikawa glanced at Iwaizumi, though he was barely able to see him under the light of the moon. They had both paused at the walkway that led up to Iwaizumi’s house.

“What’s up, Iwa-chan?”

“You should come inside,” Iwaizumi said as he started walking towards the house.

Those four words made Oikawa smile just as much as the three words he had been so desperate to hear would have. Iwaizumi didn’t want the day to end either, and that made him feel really happy as he followed Iwaizumi onto the porch.

“I’m glad you offered. My legs are super tired, I really don’t know if I could even make it home.”

“I’m sure you’d make it home just fine,” Iwaizumi teased.

Then he led the way to his front door and unlocked it. But when he stepped into the house and slipped off his shoes, his voice became serious and quiet.

“I need to show you something.”

Oikawa’s stomach dropped as he followed Iwaizumi into the house. There was such a heaviness in the last part of what Iwaizumi had just said, and he had no idea what he should expect to be shown.

Chapter Text

Oikawa removed his shoes at the front door and followed Iwaizumi into the house, though he was feeling a strong sense of worry.

There was something off about Iwaizumi—a kind of seriousness that was frightening, like when he was glaring before coming over to yell at him. So he was concerned about getting scolded again over his angry outburst towards Mattsun. It wouldn’t be the first time that he got an earful after losing his cool on someone, which felt a little hypocritical, considering how often Iwaizumi got angry at him. 

Between the two of them, it was clear who had better control over their emotions. 

Neither of them did—they both struggled in different ways. But that was beside the point.

Iwaizumi wasn’t the type to tuck his anger away and save it for later, so Oikawa wasn’t sure what to make of his current mood. And he hadn’t even said they would need to talk about something. He had specifically said he needed to show him something, which somehow felt much more ominous. 

What if he was going to reveal some flesh-eating disease that left him with a very short amount of time to live?

No, that was unlikely. 

He shouldn’t have read the Sickness Related Confessions section of the notebook to pass the time while he was recovering from his illness. It gave him all kinds of sad scenarios to think about, which was honestly a little traumatizing. 

Since they were heading for Iwaizumi’s bedroom, Oikawa wondered if the thing he was going to be shown had something to do with what Iwaizumi had been looking for earlier. He didn’t know whether to feel hopeful or scared about that—especially since Iwaizumi had been so ridiculously secretive about it earlier on. 

What were the odds that he had a skeleton in there?

No, that was silly. 

But those were the kinds of thoughts racing around in Oikawa’s head. His imagination was running wild, and not in a good way. The day had been physically exhausting with an emotionally charged ending. That left him more prone to assuming the worst, and more likely to have trouble thinking clearly.

Once they reached Iwaizumi’s bedroom, he unlocked the door and stepped inside. Then he set his souvenirs from Disneyland down on his desk and pulled the chair out from under it.

“You should sit.”

“Alright,” Oikawa replied as he slipped off his backpack and put it down near the door, which Iwaizumi then closed behind him.  

As Oikawa sat in the chair, he could feel his heart racing. Iwaizumi was acting so unbearably solemn. It’s like they were about to attend a funeral, or bid each other farewell forever, or admit that their friendship had never really meant anything.

Those negative thoughts were spinning out of control again.

They were making him feel nervous, nauseous, tense, terrified—and just about a billion other things all at once. He couldn’t even think of anything funny to say that might lighten the mood. 

All he could do was watch Iwaizumi go to his nightstand and grab a few papers, which he then brought with him as he sat on the edge of the bed, facing Oikawa.

After a moment, Iwaizumi cleared his throat. He seemed to be having a difficult time thinking of what he wanted to say—and that was never a good sign, was it?

But then Iwaizumi finally went for it. “Remember how I was talking about that time you drank my dad’s hard alcohol, back when we had everyone over here last fall?”

Oikawa gave a fake smile to hide his confusion about the topic that was being brought up. “Of course, Iwa-chan. You threatened to blackmail me.”

“Ah, right,” Iwaizumi said as he rubbed the back of his neck, using the hand that wasn’t holding the papers from his nightstand. “Well… after everyone else finally left, I made you stay. I didn’t want you going home drunk and getting me in trouble.”

“Or did you just wanna take care of me?” Oikawa asked in a playful voice that was very forced. He had no idea where Iwaizumi was going with this conversation, but he was getting a funny feeling about it.

“Just shut up and let me talk,” Iwaizumi grumbled as he glanced away. He suddenly seemed really uncomfortable. 

“Fine,” Oikawa said with a huff. He ran two fingers over his lips as if he were zipping them shut, then tossed an imaginary key over his shoulder.

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes at that, taking a slightly unsteady breath before he went on speaking. “Well, anyway… you were really out of it. And you were being obnoxious. I was getting a little fed up, so I told you to sit at my desk and find a way to entertain yourself quietly while I went to take a shower.”

Oikawa was silently listening, staying very focused on what Iwaizumi was saying. Something about it was ringing a fuzzy sounding bell in the back of his mind. 

“When I came back, you were writing something,” Iwaizumi continued as he started to fidget with the papers in his hand, crinkling them a little bit. “After you were done, you told me I had to read what you wrote out loud. Then you handed me three pieces of paper. I didn’t read any of them out loud, though, ‘cause I thought you were messing with me. But then you said it was to… to get me to… confess to you… so… I told you to shut up and go to bed.”

As Iwaizumi’s words soaked in, Oikawa felt like he might fall out of his chair and die. He couldn’t think of a way to defend himself after doing something that embarrassing.

So he just sat there looking at Iwaizumi, with his mouth slightly open and his eyes wide, scrambling to come up with something to say that might redeem his honor.

However, Iwaizumi wasn’t done yet. He was staring intently at the notes in his hands, which he was now gently folding open and closed. And after a few more seconds, he handed them to Oikawa and spoke in a wary voice.

“I couldn’t find the third one, but I needed you to see these.”

Oikawa took the two notes and silently read them, which was difficult, but only because his handwriting had been terrible at the time. 

The first one said: I love you. 

And the second one said: Will you go out with me? 

His eyes got even wider than they had been just a moment ago, and his mouth went dry. He would never have thought that one of the plans from the IwaOi notebook was legitimately something he had tried out on his own—and it just had to be the least impressive one.

This was the most embarrassing moment of his entire life.

He was genuinely hoping that the floor would open up and swallow him whole, or that a meteor would crash right into them and end his humiliation. 

And he couldn’t believe Iwaizumi had never brought this up before. He was either a saint, or he really did want to use it for blackmail at some point. 

“What… uh…” Oikawa mostly kept his eyes on the papers in his hands, glancing up only briefly. “What did the third one say?”

Iwaizumi started blushing—though he had already been noticeably red from his sunburn. But he definitely got more red as he replied.

“It said… ‘Will you kiss me?’”

Oikawa would have burned the papers up right that second if he had the ability to concentrate his mortification into laser vision. But he didn’t have that power, so he just stared at them intensely as he tried to come up with a response. 

He didn’t understand what point Iwaizumi was trying to make by revealing these papers, but there were two possibilities that came to mind. Iwaizumi either wanted to clear the air before they went separate ways, or wanted to resume the conversation from back then while they were both sober in order to… in order to… do something. 

Oikawa couldn’t think straight, but he felt like he should say something. 

Words.

Words!

Where were his words at a time like this?!

“I need to know if you meant what you wrote,” Iwaizumi said in the most ambiguous tone Oikawa had ever heard him use.

“Well... which… uh… what would you do if…” Oikawa mumbled in an almost unintelligible way.

He hadn’t looked back up at Iwaizumi yet—he wasn’t sure what he would see when he did, and he was too nervous to find out. But he tried to speak a little more confidently as he stared down at the papers in his hands.

“What would you do if I meant it?”

There was a long pause. 

A painfully long pause. 

Oikawa could hardly stand it. 

Two more seconds, and he was going to have to throw himself right through the window. 

But then Iwaizumi said something surprising. “I’d ask you to read them to me right now.”

Oikawa finally looked up at that point, because he wasn’t sure if Iwaizumi was joking. But Iwaizumi looked serious, and sincere, and vulnerable, and absolutely soft. So he didn’t dare question why—he just did what Iwaizumi wanted him to do. 

“I love you,” Oikawa said nervously as he looked at the first paper.

Iwaizumi responded immediately. “I love you, too.”

Oikawa’s face heated up, and his heart started racing even faster than it already had been. Those words he had been waiting for sounded even better from Iwaizumi’s lips than he thought they would.

It took him a second to shuffle the papers in his hands so that he could read the second one, because he couldn’t even remember what it said thanks to his spinning mind. 

“Will you go out with me?”

“Yeah, I will,” Iwaizumi replied confidently. Then he stood up and came closer to Oikawa, leaning down to use the desk next to him as he wrote something on a piece of paper—which he then handed to Oikawa. “This isn’t the original, but it says the same thing.”

Oikawa took the paper from Iwaizumi and read it out loud. “Will you kiss me?”

“If you want me to,” Iwaizumi replied with a half grin and a casual shrug, though he was blushing deeply. 

After swallowing hard and licking his lips, Oikawa nodded. “I do want you to.”

“Alright,” Iwaizumi said in a tight voice. He was standing near the desk, and he reached to put both hands on Oikawa’s shoulders, leaning in, but not all the way. 

Then there was an almost awkward pause as they looked at each other. They were both blushing, and their eyes kept darting down to look at each other’s lips. 

It was like a game of chicken—who was going to close the gap? 

And it felt as if there was electricity between them, getting more and more intense as the seconds kept ticking by.

But then Iwaizumi moved forward.

When their lips met, a jolt of that built up electricity shot through Oikawa’s whole body. He gasped slightly as he reached up to grab the front of Iwaizumi’s shirt, pulling him closer, and closer, and closer, until he was sitting on his lap.

The kiss was way better than any of the ones he had imagined. It was warm, unsure, and a little clumsy—but it was amazing nonetheless. And it seemed like it would last forever, because he didn’t feel like he could stop. He wanted to keep Iwaizumi on his lap like that all night. 

But then Iwaizumi’s dad opened the bedroom door, and they both jumped at the sound.

Iwaizumi’s dad froze when he saw his son sitting on Oikawa’s lap, and he had definitely seen their kiss right before it came to a startled end.

They shot looks of shock and embarrassment at him as the silence dragged on.

There was a seconds-long stare off that felt like an eternity, and no one seemed to know what to say. 

That is, until Iwaizumi’s dad finally spoke. 

“You’ve got a lock on your door for a reason, dumbass,” he said as he turned to leave, closing the door behind himself with a bit of a slam. 

The tension shattered, leaving just their adrenaline and the lingering electricity between them. 

After that, Iwaizumi sighed, dropping his forehead down on Oikawa’s shoulder. “I’ll never live this down.”

“That’s alright, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa teased, finally feeling capable of harassing his best friend—or should he say, his boyfriend—to lighten the mood. “It was decent for our first kiss. You’ll get better if you practice with me all the time.”

Iwaizumi lifted his head back up and moved his hands to the sides of Oikawa’s neck, letting them rest there gently as he gave an annoyed grin. “Don’t make me smash my forehead into yours.”

“That would totally ruin the mood. Smash your lips into mine instead,” Oikawa suggested as he pulled Iwaizumi closer by the front of his shirt, kissing him once again. 

And that was how they spent their first few moments as a couple. It was the beginning of the rest of their lives, which they were going to spend together—no matter how many miles separated them, and no matter how long it took to find themselves back in each other’s arms.