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"He had nice hands, don't you think?" Oikawa asks.
Hajime grunts, because he is barely more civilised than a wild boar and Oikawa needs to find a new best friend as soon as possible. After he gets his opinion.
Oikawa reaches up and pushes at Hajime's ankle. "Iwa-chan is going to forget how to speak any day now."
Hajime moves his book until it's a barrier between his face and Oikawa and turns the page. But he does reply, as he should. "I was busy trying not to lose during the game."
"The whole time? So intense, Iwa-chan!"
Hajime aims a kick at Oikawa's head but he can't have meant it to connect since it misses with just a small shift to the side. "You're obsessed."
Perhaps. Mr. Refreshing occupies his thoughts on a regular basis since Seijoh's match with Karasuno. Oikawa's skills leave his in the dust, of course, but he dealt with his team so differently to Kageyama. He played them just like Oikawa does. If he had Oikawa's skills, they would play identically.
Of course, admitting he's obsessed to Hajime would be stupid. Instead, he sits up and twists around from Hajime's TV as it plays Seijoh's match against Karasuno for the hundredth time. "Jealousy is so unbecoming, Iwa-chan."
Hajime pulls his book down so Oikawa can see just how unimpressed he is with Oikawa's accusation. "Ask him out."
He kind of loves Hajime.
----
Asking Sugawara-san out proves more difficult than he thought. He expected no one on his team to have his number, he's not the strongest player at Karasuno or captain, so why would they? What he didn't expect is no one at Seijoh to have any of the Karasuno players' numbers.
"You all need lessons in socialising. Honestly, how are you all so uncultured?" he asks as he pulls his shirt over his head. He catches a glimpse of Kindaichi with wide eyes, like he was actually admonishing them rather than teasing. He pats him on the back. "Make sure you work hard not to turn into this bunch of introverts, Kindaichi-kun!" And Kindaichi relaxes, which seems to fix that problem. Kunimi relaxes as well - such a predictable pair.
Hanamaki mumbles something into his gym clothes.
"Speak up and share with the team, Hanamaki-kun! How else will we know your important thoughts?" Being captain is so tiring.
"You just want their numbers to gloat." A fair point.
Hajime snorts and the rest of the team's eyes swing to him while Oikawa glares.
"A tragedy I didn't know we had, a captain with no loyal followers. If we never win another match, I'll know why," Oikawa says to lighten up the atmosphere. Hajime laughs outright, and the team starts making their way out of the locker room.
Watari catches Oikawa's arm as he passes and scribbles down a number from his phone onto it. "That's Nishinoya-san's number," he says and adds "Please don't antagonise them," as an afterthought.
The numbers tingle on his skin and he blurts out a too earnest thank you before he can come up with something less heartfelt. Watari only waves goodbye and jogs over to his bike. Oikawa types the numbers into his phone as fast as his fingers will move.
----
To: Tiny Libero
| Kyaaa~ Lucky, lucky ～♪♬ My favourite libero knowing the number of Karasuno's stunning defense! ٩(●˙▿˙●)۶…⋆ฺ
| How is the team of black?
He waits. Makes himself busy, fiddles with utterly boring homework. Then gives up.
To: Tiny Libero
| You shouldn't keep captains waiting, Nishinoya-san!
| We're awfully impatient (PД`q｡)
From: Tiny Libero
| who the hell r u
| ?
To: Tiny Libero
| Σ(･口･)！！！
| Nishinoya-san doesn't know????
| Next time I'll make a bigger impression ☆～（ゝ。∂）
From: Tiny Libero
| oikawa-san?
To: Tiny Libero
| ヾ(´ー｀)ﾉ｡･:*:･ﾟ’★,｡･:*:･ﾟ’☆ Congratulations･･･～
| You do recognise me, Noya-san～
| I was worried for a moment!
| I don't know what I'd do if you didn't let me go onto the next stage of my plan
| Would you give a desperate captain a certain refreshing setter's number?? (>人<；)
Honestly, he's mostly hoping that Nishinoya will give it up out of pure irritation. Then he can make it up to Watari for antagonising Nishinoya later.
From: Tiny Libero
| do u mean sugawara-senpai or kageyama
| ?
Oikawa snorts at his screen. He wouldn't have picked Nishinoya as someone who doesn't like texting but that's what sending a question mark in a separate message twice indicates.
To: Tiny Libero
| Option number one, please! ∑d(･ω･*)
An agonising wait later, a string of numbers pops onto his screen with Nishinoya typing a new message. He can't believe it.
From: Tiny Libero
| suga-senpai said it was ok.
| i have ur number if u annoy him
| so u shouldnt
To: Tiny Libero
| Understood! (￣^￣)ゞ
| Thank you, Nishinoya-san~
He beams. Good thing Hajime isn't here or he'd make some comment about it being a nice change from his usual one. Which would only prove what a freak he is to even notice. His fake smile is perfectly happy, no matter what Hajime says.
To: Mr. Refreshing
| Suga-chan! I hear you willingly gave up your number. Could it be you were thinking about me, too? (/▽ﾟ＼)
From: Mr. Refreshing
| well, after noya-kun showed me your messages, I don't know how I couldn't.
| do you always talk like that, or was it only for his benefit?
To: Mr. Refreshing
| Would you rather I talk like he does?
| Or, perhaps, you'd like some formality
| I can do either! But it would remove my adorable charm. (・ω<)b
From: Mr. Refreshing
| I agree, and it would be a shame to lose that.
| was there something in particular you wanted me for?
Suga's message catches him off guard. He expected exasperation, or a quick denial - agreement wasn't on the table. He struggles to find something to say. Suga probably laughs at the wait.
To: Mr. Refreshing
| You've just been on my mind, Suga-chan. Watching over the tape of our match made you seem remarkable.
| I wanted to know if talking to you one on one would make you even more so. (*´∀｀*)
From: Mr. Refreshing
| I see. and how do I measure up?
To: Mr. Refreshing
| (ﾉω`*)ﾉ
| Fishing for compliments? I didn't think you were the type!
| You should wait until I can give you a full report. That way you'll know I mean what I say.
From: Mr. Refreshing
| now I'm curious, what type does the grand king of the court think I am?
Pushy, pushy. What answer can he even give to that? The handsome type, maybe. Or the manipulative type. The refreshing type. He sighs and types out his inevitable answer.
To: Mr. Refreshing
| My type of course! d(*ゝ∀・*)-☆
From: Mr. Refreshing
| is that so?
| on what basis?
Oikawa frowns and his fingers slip over the keys as he types his reply. A joke answer is tempting, but he's puzzled over that himself, and he owes Suga something for even talking to him this long.
To: Mr. Refreshing
| On the basis of lots of things!
| You play good volleyball, Suga-chan. Tobio has a lot to learn from you. Your team wouldn't have come so close to beating us without you.
| Even glasses-kun listened to you and Tobio couldn't use him at all until you showed him how.
His fingers twitch. He hadn't realised how much he's obsessed over Suga until now that he's trying to come up with things to say that won't scare him off. He can't mention wanting to taste the sweat from their match on Suga's neck. Not until they've had at least one date. Other things are more appropriate.
| I saw you make glasses-kun take credit for that little switch and everything, too. Quite impressive, he's the self depreciating type.
| Your team didn't notice, but you do that on purpose to boost moral. Sneaky sneaky Suga-chan~
| And then there's that lovely face you made when your coach took you off. Managing to boost little Tobio before he went on? That's impressive too.
| I don't think he realised that's what you were doing at all which is even better.
Suga's reply comes fast - to Oikawa's relief. Talking so frankly to anyone but Hajime makes him nervous. Usually, he doesn't care enough to explain himself and he lets people think he's frivolous and thoughtless. They sometimes work out for themselves that he's not. Most of his team has, but his team also realised it's a part of him leading them as well as he can. He swallows and reads Suga's reply.
From: Mr. Refreshing
| I don't know what to say.
| you actually like me, don't you?
He waits, perhaps too long. A noise outside shakes him out of his contemplation. He shouldn't leave Suga hanging.
To: Mr. Refreshing
| Who wouldn't, Suga-chan?
| Do you like me?
No reply for minutes. After ten trickle past, Oikawa places his phone at the outside of his reach and pulls up school work on his laptop. A distraction is always recommended when further fussing would do more harm than good. Unfortunately, he discovers as he flicks between different worksheets and pulls out his textbooks, all his work is completely finished. Finishing everything as soon as he can started as a way to make Hajime shut up about his volleyball habits. Now he's captain, it also stops complaints from his team about the workload. If their captain scores in the top ten of every exam, they don't have any excuses to make.
Still no reply on his phone. He opens up a new message with a different recipient.
To: Iwa-chan☆
| Suga-chan is breaking my heart.
| As my best friend you should seek vengeance (｢`･ω･)｢
From: Iwa-chan☆
| u actually got his number??
To: Iwa-chan☆
| Of course! Did you forget how resourceful I am?
He can practically hear Hajime's annoyed grunt and is unsurprised when no further messages come.
To: Iwa-chan☆
| 。：゜(；´∩｀；)゜：。
| He stopped replying. I don't think I even did anything, Iwa-chan.
From: Iwa-chan☆
| u always do something.
The evening drags on with him sending the occasional message to Hajime. It's only partly an excuse to check his phone which he otherwise keeps on silent and out of reach. He would go out for a run but it's getting late and the probability of his mom switching off the TV pursing her lips and telling him it's too late for running is high.
Not a single message from Sugawara before he plugs his phone in for the night.
----
"Don't tell me you stayed up waiting for Suga-san to text you?" Hajime asks as Oikawa trudges into their classroom.
"Of course not, I only stay up for you, Iwa-chan." He knows his response is lacking its usual charm, lacking most of his usual sleep will do that do a guy.
He had, almost, stayed up waiting. That was tangential to what he was actually doing. What he thought about was why saying he likes Suga could have caused him to drop him like... well, like Oikawa would. He knows they're alike, but somehow Suga seems more happy with himself. Enough that Oikawa didn't think he would pull this kind of stunt. And by the time Oikawa overthought himself into a mess - and decided that maybe, for once, he hadn't done something wrong - he was due to wake up in an hour.
He left his phone at home.
In English, he's all but asleep when the teacher calls on him - he manages an answer. Except, after he says it, all the eyes in the class fall on him. His heart sinks. That was French. He flashes a smile, pretends that there aren't sleep tears in his eyes and repeats the answer in the correct language. Hopefully, his vocabulary practice means he chose the right words. And the day carries on.
Any other day, he works through lunch. Or drags Hajime out for a run. Today, Hajime forces him down onto a bench under a tree, pries his bag out of his hands and sits down next to him with a glower that can only mean - "Iwa-chan wants me to sleep on his lap? You know people will talk."
"You're a pain in Japanese and fucking unbearable in French. I'm doing everyone else a favour."
"Careful, Iwa-chan, people might start to think you're a good guy," he says and lays down. Hajime strokes his hair and reads his book while Oikawa regains some of his energy.
Practice is, predictably, a nightmare. At one point, Oikawa slumps his head into Hajime's shoulder with a plea for him to pinch him and wake them up. Hajime only told him it was his own fault for freaking out over a boy and to get back to work. Such a hardass. Soft lap though.
Hajime walks him part of the way home. Before they part ways, Hajime catches him off guard and follows his customary fistbump to the shoulder with a one armed hug and an embarrassed frown. "Get some sleep, asshole."
"Aye, aye, Iwa-chan. Maybe I'll date you if Suga-chan hates me."
He must look miserable because Hajime doesn't retort, just waves goodbye and walks off.
After he closes the gate to his house and trudges up to his room, he wants to sleep. But, if he did, come night he'd be just as awake as last time and there's no way Hajime would let him nap on his lap two days in a row. He's about to send Hajime a text to verify when his heart skips a beat.
Six new messages.
The first three timestamped just after seven.
From: Mr. Refreshing
| sorry!
| my phone skips from low battery to no battery without warning sometimes and I couldn't charge it last night.
| you are growing on me a little, we'll have to see how things go from here. ;)
A gap in the timestamps - the next two sent during lunch.
| oikawa?
| I'm sorry, I've messed this up, haven't I
And the last from ten minutes ago.
From: <unknown number>
| Sorry to be the one to check, but Suga's phone can be a problem. Did his messages get through?
He replies to the last message first, not bothering to say anything apart from 'yes' with a smile.
To: Mr. Refreshing
| Suga-chan! Awfully hasty to assume the worst, aren't you? (｀ω´)
| Don't worry, I want to see how things go as well.
----
Two weeks later, they find time for an actual date. Over those weeks, Suga's phone proved itself the worst cockblock Oikawa has ever had the disgust to know. And he knows Hajime.
It spent two afternoons and one morning refusing to send Suga's messages. But let Oikawa's increasingly whiny ones through. Eventually Suga worked out that it would still let him call when it's in this mood and Oikawa got to hear him laugh at Oikawa's jokes for the first time. Another day, it gave up completely and wouldn't turn on. Apparently Suga managed to look sad enough that Sawamura handed his phone off to him. He slipped in a few more annoying texts than usual just so Sawamura would have them on his phone and be disgusted at his vice captain's taste.
When Suga arrives, hands that Oikawa hasn't seen in person for a long time unwinding his scarf from his neck, and cheeks lit up from the cold. Oikawa lights up with a smile. Because they might work.