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Kageyama Tobio.
The name is tattooed on his skin, just below Tooru's right shoulder blade, loud, clear and in italic—fucking italic. His mind flashes with the vision of a boy, younger than him, with a mop of shiny black hair and sharp eyes.
Tobio-chan, who Tooru met for the first time when he was just a baby—still in diapers, smelt like milk and slivers of drool coming out from that tiny mouth as he tried to eat a volleyball the size of his tiny head.
The same Tobio-chan that if Tooru runs to his window right now and opens it, he could see him in his room, right across Tooru’s—and Tooru actually runs to the said window, opens it and sees his soulmate—fuck—on his desk, studying or whatever and the latter looks at him back, makes an annoyed face and pulls the curtain close. “What the fuck?”
Tooru finds out later, when he complains to Iwaizumi, that his mother is aware about the name that appeared on his skin last night—courtesy of Iwaizumi Hajime (18), Vice Captain of Aoba Johsai Volleyball Club, who doesn’t know how to shut his mouth—and has gone to visit the Kageyama household earlier that day.
“Why did you have to go and visit them?!” Tooru may be dramatic but his mother and sister are on a different level. The way both of the ladies beam with bright, very bright eyes as they sit at the dining table for dinner and talk about the youngest Kageyama. “We are so happy for you and Tobio!” his mother exclaims.
“But you really don’t have to go and tell his mom about it! Tobio probably doesn’t know yet and thinks I’m a creep. I need some time before I break the news to him.”
“What news?”
“That we are soulmates.”
“Eh? Tobio already found out last year!”
Tooru wishes the ground would swallow him whole.
~~~
When Tooru is getting ready to go to school the next morning, his mom is already outside, talking to their neighbour. The neighbour. There is Yumi-san—the neighbour, Tobio’s mom—who’s talking to his mom enthusiastically and Tobio is standing behind her, looking constipated. “Good morning, Tooru-kun!”
“Good morning, Yumi-san!” Yumi-san nudges his son to do the same, in which Tobio did with a low grumble of ‘good morning, Oikawa-san’, looking everywhere but at him. The older then forcibly pushes his son towards Tooru and both of their parents wave at them with a cheerful “Have fun at school!”
“We don’t even go to the same school?!”
“Just go!” Tooru gets a good smack from his mom that morning.
Their moms make it a routine for them to walk to school together every morning. Iwaizumi walks with them for the first few days but he thinks it is too awkward—he doesn’t want to third wheel—and he hates the vibes, so he decides to leave the two on their own. “You know you don’t have to walk to school with me, right, Oikawa-san?”
“I know but my mom and your mom are going to make a fuss about it if we don’t.” Tooru knows that Tobio knows he is right. Especially Tooru’s mom. He will never hear the end of it if he doesn’t do what she wants him to and he’s not ready to get yelled at.
A few weeks later, his mom makes it worse and invites the Kageyamas for dinner. “Why didn’t you tell me?” They are in Tooru’s room and Tobio is nosing around, looking at Tooru’s desk and grimacing at how messy it is. “Hm?” he hums, not looking up from flipping through the notebook on the desk.
“Hey, who says you can touch my stuff?!” Tooru snatches away his notebook from Tobio’s hand. “Sorry—”
“Stop nosing around my stuff and answer the question, Tobio-chan. Why didn’t you tell me? You’ve known for almost a year now, right?”
“Yeah.”
“And?” Oh boy, Tobio takes time to answer the question, fiddling with his own hands and then looks at Tooru dead in the eyes—Tooru is not sure if that’s just how he is, because that is how he usually is or if this kid is just trying to tease him—and says “I was hoping for it to be a different Oikawa Tooru.”
“...Get the fuck out of my room.”
~~~
“What are you doing here?” Tobio asks, for the third time, as he does his homework and watches as Tooru noses around his room and picks at the volleyball on the floor. “To visit my soulmate,” he says, emphasizing the word ‘soulmate’ just to pick on Tobio. “You don’t have to visit me. I see you every morning.”
Tooru rolls his eyes, grabs a manga from Tobio’s shelf and lands himself on the younger’s bed and then he realizes, that he is in Tobio’s room for the first time in years, laying on the bed that smells like Tobio—he smells like vanilla and Tooru kind of likes the smell but Tobio doesn’t need to know it because it is totally normal to like how your soulmate smells, right?—and Tobio is not bothered at all, which is a lie because Tobio gives him a look and shakes his head in defeat.
“Oikawa-san—”
“Don’t you think we should work on that?” Tooru sighs when Tobio looks at him with that famous clueless expression of his. “We are soulmates, you can call me Tooru.”
“Is that okay?”
“Yes.”
“Okay… Uh, Oika-I mean, Tooru...san. Tooru-san, why don’t you call Iwaizumi-san back?”
“Huh?”
“Iwaizumi-san texted me. He asked if you’re here because you keep ignoring his messages. You even canceled the plan to hang out with your friends today. Are you okay?” Is he okay? Of course Tooru is okay. But is he going to tell Tobio that he stood them up because he wants to be here, with Tobio—he doesn’t know why, don’t ask him—nosing around Tobio’s safe place for no fucking reason at all? The answer is no. “I’m fine.”
“Then why’d you be here and not with your friends?”
“I can’t be here?”
“Of course you can.”
“Then, what’s the problem?” Tobio ignores the question and goes back to doing whatever he is doing at his desk while Tooru goes back to make himself comfortable in Tobio’s bed, reading the manga and eventually falling asleep soon.
~~~
Tooru sees Tobio peeking through his window that night, and with the force of a godzilla he shuts his window—he gets yelled at by his mom after—and closes the curtain. Few minutes later, there is a knock at his door. Knowing who it is, he doesn’t even bother to get up from his bed to open the door and yells. “What?!”
“Can I come in?” Tobio.
“Hmmph!” The younger one comes in, closes the door behind him and moves to sit next to Tooru on his bed. There is silence for a few minutes and Tooru sighs loudly, on purpose.
“You’re such a sore loser.” He whips his head at that. Wide brown eyes looking straight into Tobio’s blue ones. “What did you say?”
“I said that you are such a sore loser.”
“Wah! You’ve become more and more annoying, Tobio-chan! Where did you learn that? And one more thing, I am not a sore loser!!”
“You literally shut that window on my face—”
“That is because I didn’t want to see your stupid face!”
“Really?” Tooru nods. “Not because you lost to Karasuno at the semi-final this evening?” Tobio laughs as Tooru’s fuming with his very fake anger—you see, he just wanted the attention, this idiot.
Of course he’s sad, it was his last high school match with Iwaizumi and his team. But maybe, maybe watching Tobio laugh out loud with his face all scrunch up while making fun of him is worth it.
He’s beautiful. Tobio is beautiful. If you ask Tooru from years ago, he’d probably say meh, he looks stupid with that haircut and expressionless face and if someone is to say that same thing now, Tooru will be the one to pound their face into the wall, because Tobio is laughing now and he’s so, so pretty. Fuck, he thinks.
“Promise you’d beat that Ushiwaka. Make my loss worth it.”
“I will, and about my face... you will have to put up with this stupid face, eventually, because we are endgame.” Tooru feels his face burn. “Shut up!”
~~~
Tooru is not listening. He pretends like he does but the words pass by his ears just like that and he gives no attention to whatever Tobio is telling him. “Tooru-san, are you listening?”
“Hm?” It is winter, the weather is cold and Tooru could see the air coming out from Tobio’s nose as he breathed out. “What’s on your mind?” What is on his mind? What is it? Tooru has been thinking for a long time now and he is contemplating on whether or not he should tell Tobio about it.
“I think that you are great. In many ways, and in volleyball, especially.”
“Excuse me?” The look on Tobio’s face screams shock. Of course he is shocked because Tooru has never, ever said things like that to Tobio—and volleyball, really? Tooru would rather cut his fingers off than saying anything about Tobio being great at volleyball because damn, if anything, he so wanted to beat him in that area.
“Tobio, you just came back from the All-Japan Youth Training Camp and that’s something, you know? You’re one step ahead of me.”
“But you are Oikawa Tooru.”
“And how is that supposed to mean anything?”
“You are you. You’re like, the best setter in Miyagi Prefecture.”
“I know, right? Hah! In your face!” Tooru gives Tobio his signature blep and runs off to sit at one of the benches at the park. He pats the seat next to him and Tobio follows him right after. The two of them sit in a comfortable silence for a while before Tooru finally speaks again. “Tobio, what do you want in your life?”
Tobio takes his time to answer and settles with a simple “I don’t know yet.” He then explains that he’s just in his first year of high school and he doesn’t know where life would take him after that. But for one, he knows for sure that he’d still play volleyball after high school. That is the only thing that he is sure about—and maybe, if Tooru wants to, Tobio says he wants to keep what they have together just the way it is. Together.
“Me too,” Tooru starts. “Volleyball. I choose volleyball.”
“You’re graduating soon. I’m sure you’ve got some offers, right?”
“Tobio, I’m not like you.”
“Don’t say that—”
“I’m going to Argentina.” Seeing Tobio is not answering as a cue, he speaks again. “Blanco… you know him, right? I’ve admired him for a long time. He offered to coach me but to do that I will have to go to Argentina with him—and I don’t want to let the chances go. It’s my dream. Do you understand?”
Tooru watches as Tobio’s face morphs from shock, confusion and then realisation. “But there are many other great coaches in Japan! I-I’m sure they will contact you soon, you don’t have to go to Argentina—”
“Tobio.” Like I said, you’re way ahead of me, always, always way ahead of me and I want to fix that to be able to stand on the same stage as you. Me and you. Us. Together. Tooru doesn’t need to say it. He knows Tobio can see it from his eyes. He is his soulmate, after all. “I understand.”
~~~
“Are you planning to bring the whole room with you?” Tobio grumbles as he fills Tooru’s stuff inside the already packed luggage. “If I could, I would bring you in the luggage too, Tobio.”
Tobio stands up to get a box from Tooru’s cupboard and brings it down. The younger’s shirt moves up with him, and that’s when Tooru finally sees it. He screeches out loud and then slaps a hand to his mouth. “What the hell? What’s wrong?!”
Tooru’s face is red and he thinks it is kind of stupid for him to even feel embarrassed. If anything, Tobio should be the one who’s feeling embarrassed about it. Ah, that’s why whenever Tooru asks where his name is, Tobio never answers. He’d pretend like he didn’t hear him or simply brush him off, telling him that it doesn’t matter where it is located.
“Oh my god, Tobio-chan!”
Tooru grabs Tobio by his leg and forces him to sit down. He then strangles him and forcibly lifts the boy’s shirt up which makes him red from the neck up to the tip of his ears, embarrassed because now Tooru-san knows where his name is—on his lower waist, under the band of his sweatpants. “Oh my god, it’s here all the damn time.”
Fucking sexy—
“Uh, should I leave?” Iwaizumi’s voice booms through the room. He finds them in that awkward position where Tobio is being pinned down and Tooru is strangling him on his lap, fingers brushing against Tobio’s skin that low.
“Yeah, you should leave.”
“Iwaizumi-san, no!”
~~~
Tobio is out of place. His hair dishevelles in a messy nest and he looks so out of it. Tooru thanks god that the boy drags Hinata—yes that Chibi-chan, Tobio’s partner in court, the reason why he lost in his last high school match—to the airport. At least there's someone Tooru knows Tobio can depends on. “Dude, calm down. It’s not like he will never come back!” He hears the middle blocker say.
Tooru hugs each and one of his family members, his friends, his teammates and even Hinata—who promises he will watch after Tobio for him and Tobio retorts because hell, he doesn’t need Hinata to watch him—and lastly at Tobio.
“Hey, look at me. Don’t make that face.” Tooru flicks his forehead lightly. “It’s just for a while. I promised you we will meet again, didn’t I? It doesn’t matter how far we are with each other. I will always be reminded of you and what you are to me, okay?”
No, because instead of Tobio, it is Tooru who is almost crying. He only says that to reassure himself. Of course Tobio looks kind of miserable too, but he understands the need to be apart. He understands this. “Promise you will call me often?”
“I will. I will, don’t worry about it.”
“Okay. Then, can we kiss already? Because I don’t want to wait until you come back to Japan again before you’d finally decide to kiss me.”
Tooru laughs because that coming from a Kageyama Tobio. The same little Tobio who lives across his room. The same Tobio that used to follow him and ask him to show him how to serve when they were in middle school. The same Tobio that Tooru has had a very childish grudge on because he is too good to be true.
The same very same Kageyama Tobio, whose name is tattooed on his skin, loud, clear and in italic—fucking italic. Tooru laughs and then leans in, kissing Tobio for the first time.
“I will see you soon, bebé.”
~~~
The crowd is cheering out loud. The opposite side of the court, all red, has the advantage of playing in their home country but Tooru has zero intention of letting them win and he does just that.
He wins and he goes to rub it in his friends’ faces—especially Iwaizumi Hajime (27) Athletic Trainer, who still doesn’t know how to shut his mouth because Tooru is interrogating his athletes, especially that jerk Ushiwaka—and tells them that he wins.
There’s also Tobio, who runs at him and crashes him with a sweaty hug. They are hugging, laughing and then Tobio—bold and honest, just like years ago—pulls him into a kiss. Sweet, sweet kiss. Kisses and many more kisses and their teammates are cooing around them.
“I’m home, Tobio-chan.”