Work Text:
June 8th
“Iwa-chan, it’s not fair!”
“What’s not fair, Shittykawa?” Iwaizumi asks, looking up from the math problem he’s currently working on.
“You’ll get to see your soulmark before me,” Oikawa continues to whine. If being dramatic were an olympic sport, he would take the gold everytime.
“Oikawa, I can’t help that you were born after me, had you been born first you’d get to see your mark before me,” he says, already thinking of how to indulge his best friend and remedy the supposed unfairness.
“It’s still not fair. You will find out who your soulmate is then you’ll leave me behind and only hang out with them, and-”
“I’ll wait until your birthday and then we can look at them together, “ Iwa decides, but Oikawa fails to hear him over his own dramatics.
“Wait, what did you say, Iwa-chan?”
“I said, I’ll wait until your birthday-”
Oikawa flails himself at Iwaizumi pulling him into a half-hug, “for real, Iwa-chan? You’d really wait until my birthday to look at your soul mark?”
“Get off me Crappykawa!” Iwa says in a lame attempt to get Oikawa off of him. “Yeah, I will if you stop whining about it,” he says, rolling his eyes.
"You promise?"
"I promise."
"No, you have to pinky promise," Oikawa says, sticking his out to seal the deal.
“You can’t be serious," Iwaizumi responds, pulling his focus away from his homework once again. Though when he sees the look on his best friend's face, he realizes he isn’t joking.
They haven’t done this since childhood, well past the silliness and games of youth, and maturing into teens, almost young adults now. Still, Iwaizumi can’t ignore the sparkle in Oikawa’s eyes and decides to entertain him yet again. He sticks his pinky out wrapping it around Oikawa’s more slender one and squeezes, punctuating the action with, “I pinky promise,” the smile on his face reaching his eyes.
Oikawa leans forward pressing his lips to his index finger and muffles out, “seal it with a kiss, Iwa-chan.”
And so he follows suit, sealing the promise with a kiss.
Later that night
“Mom!” Hajime yells shortly after entering his house. He’s put his bag down and removed his shoes at the genkan but needs to find his mother as soon as possible. He calls out for her again.
She pokes her head out from the kitchen, “Hajime, what is it?” concern lacing her voice.
Iwaizumi meets her at the entry and they move back into the kitchen, he takes a seat at the counter while she resumes prepping whatever she’d been making for his lunch. “Mom, I need your help with something,” he says, then taking a sip from the water she placed in front of him.
“Honey, what is it?” she replies.
“I need you to help me cover my soul mark when it appears in a few days,” he responds matter-of-factly.
Confusion graces her face, but she asks, “whatever for, Hajime? Your soul mark is an important part of being a young adult.”
“I know, Mom. But I made a promise with Tooru that I wouldn’t look at mine until his birthday. So I need your help covering-”
“Hajime, honey, are you sure you want to do that?” she presses, worry clear on her face.
“I pinky promised, Mom. I can’t go back on this, plus I’m okay with waiting. Tooru is my best friend after all,” he replies confidently with a broad smile.
Hearing those words and seeing her son’s face is all it takes to ease some of her concern, understanding the two boys’ bond. She can only hope that in two days time that connection will be revealed to be that of soul mates and not just mere friends.
“Of course, I’ll help you, Hajime,” looking up from her prep work with a smile.
He finishes the last of his water placing his glass near the sink, then leans in to give her a kiss on the cheek following up with a “thank you, Mom.” After that he’s gone in a haste, up to his room to shower and finish studying before bed.
She watches on with fondness and whispers, “you’re welcome, Hajime,” to an empty kitchen.
July 20th, after practice
In their usual tradition for Oikawa’s birthday, they end up at their favorite ramen spot for a small celebration. Hanamaki had hassled Oikawa for the better half of practice, asking if he was ready to treat the four of them to ramen and threatening to order the most expensive one on the menu. He of course had every intention of splitting the cost of their meals with Matsukawa, but he still loved to get a rise out of the setter.
Which is what he’s continuing to do now, while they wait on their orders. Iwaizumi arrived a few minutes late after stopping to pick up some milk bread for the birthday boy. Not a moment later he asks, “hey Iwaizumi, have you figured out who your soulmate is yet? That’s some interesting kanji on your arm there,” smirking at his own cleverness.
At first, he’s not sure Oikawa even heard him, the teen too wrapped up with something on his phone, but the realization of what he said kicks in and Oikawa nearly screeches, “Iwa-chan! You showed him your soul mark before me? But you promised!”
This earns him a terrifying glare from Iwaizumi, who now must quickly mend the situation before Oikawa totally loses it, and in public. “Relax, Oikawa. I haven’t shown my mark to anyone. See, it’s still all covered up,” he lifts his shirt sleeve to show him the bandage covering the small mark on his inner bicep. “I did promise, and you know I don’t go back on my promises. You’ll get to see it later on, like we planned, okay?”
“You gonna show him something else later on, too?” Matsukawa throws in just to poke the bear.
Iwaizumi shoves his elbow into Matsukawa’s ribs for his comment, and then says, “you two idiots just need to shut up. Can we please have a relatively calm and peaceful dinner for once?”
Sensing his clear frustration, the two mumble quick apologies and their conversation switches to some video game they’ve been into lately. Iwaizumi then turns to Oikawa who’s looking down at his phone again, he bumps his shoulder to grab his attention and asks, “you good?”
Oikawa peers over shyly for some reason, and squeaks out, “thanks, Iwa-chan.”
For this he just slaps his back in support with a gruff, “yeah,” punctuating the action.
The rest of the dinner celebration continues without incident, their food arriving quickly, with seconds following, soon after. Once they all have had their fill of ramen, Iwaizumi pulls out the milk bread he bought special for the occasion. Oikawa claps in delight at his favorite treat, and then thanks them all for celebrating with him.
“Aww, you getting all sentimental on us, Captain?” Hanamaki laughs out.
Matsukawa adds, “right. I’m so touched I might cry.”
“You guys are such jerks. Can’t even accept a proper ‘thank you’?” Oikawa responds, trying to laugh at the idiocy of his two friends.
The four make their way out of the ramen shop and back onto the street for their journeys back home. As they arrive at the split off point, where Iwaizumi and Oikawa go off in one direction, while Matsukawa and Hanamaki go in the other, one of them says, “have fun tonight! Don’t do anything we wouldn’t do!”
Mattsun and Makki are too far away to do anything, so they both just flip them off.
Their walk home continues on in silence, but not an uncomfortable one. Iwaizumi and Oikawa could sit in a room for hours together enjoying the quiet stillness between them (until of course Tooru felt the need to open his big mouth).
Iwaizumi likes the quiet side of Oikawa though, the side of himself not many others get to see. In fact, he might be the only one who gets to witness this side of his best friend. And he’s okay with that, but it also makes him worry about their respective soulmates. Iwaizumi knows best how to approach Oikawa when he’s been too quiet, lost away in that head of his, the too many thoughts and self doubt that will claim his psyche if Iwaizumi doesn’t step in.
Will his soulmate know to do this? Know to check in on Oikawa and his mental state?
Iwaizumi wants to, but also doesn’t want to, hope that he is Oikawa’s soulmate. Why get your hopes up for something you can’t control or change in the end?
He soon realizes he’s been lost in his own thoughts when he hears, “Iwa-chan, are you even listening to me?"
Returning to his senses, he notices they are almost at Oikawa’s house and answers, “sorry, what did you say, Oikawa? I zoned out a bit back there."
“Are you excited to see our soul marks?” he repeats. Then, “I can’t wait to see mine!”
A small smile creeps its way onto Iwaizumi’s face and he replies, “of course I am. I’ve been looking forward to this, too. Seeing as how I had to wait more than a month just to see mine."
“Hey, that was your idea to wait! Don’t blame me-”
“Chill, I’m only teasing, Oikawa.” They’re now standing at the door, “C’mon, let’s get inside so we can reveal our marks,” he finishes.
Bumping into him to unlock the door, Oikawa opens the door and rushes in calling out a greeting as he removes his shoes and jacket. Iwaizumi eyes the bandage across his wrist, recalling his immediate concern when he had seen it earlier that day in practice.
“Oikawa! What did you do?” Iwaizumi says, grabbing at his wrist in concern.
“Calm down, Iwa-chan. It’s just my soulmark, okay. I didn’t do anything,” Oikawa quickly responds.
“You better not be lying to me, Tooru!” he stares at the gauze wrapped securely around the setter’s wrist.
“I swear, I’m not. I’d prove it to you, but then that would ruin our plan for later,” Oikawa says, feeling somewhat guilty.
“No, it’s alright. I believe you,” Iwaizumi says, ending the discussion.
Iwaizumi calls out a greeting to echo Oikawa’s and then follows him up to his room, having taken off his shoes as well. Oikawa leaves the room abruptly, but when he hears him clamber down the stairs he knows he went to get them water and snacks for later. He decides to take a seat next to the bed and wait for his best friend to return.
Oikawa reenters the room in grand fashion, arms full of refreshments for the evening.
“Damn, Oikawa. There’s only two of us, you’re not feeding six,” Iwaizumi teases.
“Oh whatever, I just grabbed all the snacks my mom bought for us,” he retorts.
Dropping his treats on the desk for later, he walks over to his bed and plops down in the middle of it. He looks over to his best friend and wonders, “what are you doing down there, Iwa-chan? Come up here with me,” patting the open spot across from him.
Iwaizumi blushes slightly, not wanting to just make himself at home, even if Oikawa is his best friend- he has better manners than that. He stands up, and then sits again in the place he’d been directed to, making himself comfortable.
He doesn’t want to encroach on Oikawa’s personal space, not on this particular occasion, but still their knees are nearly touching, them both sitting with their legs criss-crossed. Iwaizumi feels himself starting to overthink things again..
What if his soulmate is someone else? Or mine is someone else? Is he going to be mad? Or sad?
He shakes away the negative thoughts and asks, “how do we want to do this?” his green eyes meeting copper ones that are already focused on his face.
“We should do it together,” Oikawa replies almost in a whisper.
“O-okay,” Iwaizumi stutters a bit, and then moves to roll up his sleeve enough to give Oikawa access to the bandaid.
At the same time, Oikawa starts to unwrap the gauze from around his wrist, having chosen to be more dramatic with a full-on bandage instead of a regular stick-on bandaid, like Iwaizumi had used. When he gets to the near end right before his mark is revealed, he stops and lets the white fabric hang loosely between their legs on the bed. His wrist now hovers between them, but then Iwaizumi reaches across to take his forearm and rest it on his right knee.
Then he places his left elbow on his other knee, with his arm facing outwards so Oikawa has access to the band-aid on his inner bicep. While he turns back to focus on his best friend’s wrist, cool fingers come up to graze his arm near the covered mark, sending goosebumps across his skin and a chill down his spine. Iwaizumi takes a moment to feel the soft skin, running a finger down Oikawa’s forearm causing a mirror reaction to his.
“Are you ready, Iwa-chan?” Oikawa whispers again.
“Yes,” he replies, never more ready for anything in his life.
“On the count of three then, three...two...one, go!”
Simultaneously, they remove the other’s bandage to reveal the soul mark emblazoned on their skin. Iwaizumi eyes the kanji clearly representing his given name, and then quickly diverts his attention to the marking on his own arm. He whispers “Tooru” barely loud enough for him to hear it. Yet, Oikawa looks up at the use of his given name, a name he’s not heard leave Iwaizumi’s lips for years now, not since childhood.
Green eyes sparkle looking on as Oikawa finally makes the realization himself, looking back down to study the kanji marked on his wrist symbolizing the ace’s first name. He can see the gears turning in his head, but the whispered “Hajime” is what really gets him.
“It’s you,” Tooru bursts out, his copper eyes searching Hajime’s for some semblance of a false reality.
When he finds none, Tooru launches himself into Hajime’s waiting arms, and he responds, “it’s me. It’s really me.”
Hajime no longer has to worry about Tooru’s soulmate being someone other than him. Someone who wouldn’t seemingly understand his best friend like he does. Because Tooru is his soulmate, and he is Tooru’s.
They pull back from their bone-crushing hug and immediately he hears, “so, what does this mean for us, Hajime?” Tooru asks, a bit hesitant to use his name so familiarly now.
“It means we’re soulmates, dummy,” Hajime responds with a light punch to his shoulder.
“You’re always so mean to me! I know that, but does it mean we can kiss now?” Tooru continues.
Hajime’s cheeks redden at the mention of kissing, and Tooru does not fail to take notice. “Are you embarrassed, Hajime?” he teases, moving closer so that he’s nearly in Iwaizumi’s lap.
“What? N-no, no I’m not embarrassed. Why would you think that?” Hajime answers, rubbing the back of his neck, trying to evade all eye contact.
Moving back to his original spot and crossing his arms, Tooru says, “hmmm, I don’t know, maybe because you’re clearly avoiding looking me in the eyes.”
Hajime automatically looks Tooru in the face, green orbs locking onto copper ones, and attempts to portray a more fearless exterior than he truly feels inside. He’s always been a pillar of strength at home, for his friends, with his teammates -- what makes this any different? He knows Tooru, he’s no stranger that he’s meeting for the first time and expected to be soulmate’s with. This is Oikawa Tooru, who he’s known since they were little. So, he finally says, “what’s this you’re saying about kissing?” hoping he exudes toughness.
“Can I kiss you, Hajime?” Tooru asks shyly.
“Yes. Please,” he responds, a hint of weakness coming through in his voice.
Cool, slender fingers come up to cup his jaw and then he’s leaning forward as the hand guides him to meet warm, slightly chapped lips. At first it’s just a peck, but then he returns the kiss with even pressure and gently sucks on Tooru’s bottom lip, while his hand finds purchase in soft, chestnut locks.
Tooru breaks the kiss, pressing his forehead against Hajime’s and whispers, “that was nice, can I do it again?”
Hajime leans in this time, in lieu of a response, capturing those sweet lips that taste purely and uniquely of Tooru. A taste he’s only experiencing for the first time now, but one he’s not sure he’ll ever get tired of for as long as he lives.
They share gentle kisses for a few moments longer, before Tooru says, “as much as I enjoy kissing you, can we cuddle now?” a hint of shyness returning to his voice.
“Oh! Yeah, of course,” Hajime replies.
When Hajime moves to stand, Tooru stops him saying, “no, I’m getting up to go to the bathroom. You stay here and get comfortable.”
While Tooru is out of the room, Hajime is left alone to reflect on the past few hours and what this means for them going forward. Lying on his back with his hands behind his head, he can only imagine what the future has in store for the two of them. Before he knows it, Tooru is back telling him to move over and make space for him.
Hajime rolls onto his side and moves back to make room for his best friend, his soulmate, his lover. Tooru climbs on the bed facing Hajime, and proceeds to tangle their legs together. He’s then nuzzling his face into Hajime’s chest with a mumbled out, “you’re so warm,” and wrapping his arms tightly around his back.
He returns Tooru’s cuddling hug in earnest, brushing his hair back, to press a gentle kiss on his forehead. The setter wriggles around for a few seconds more, and then finally settles into what he finds to be a comfortable position.
As the two doze off, Hajime whispers, “it’s always been you,” pressing another sweet kiss to Tooru’s forehead, before sleep overcomes them both.