Chapter Text
In an emergency examination room at the hospital, Oikawa found himself lying on a gurney with his leg propped up on a pillow and Iwaizumi seated in a chair beside him. Of all places, this was not ideally where he imagined they would have ended up, especially with how well their practice sessions had gone all week.
As Oikawa stared in disbelief at the cast that trapped his left foot and ankle in a hard shell of misery, he thought back to the turn of events that resulted in his need for a hospital visit in the first place. It must have started earlier in the week with aches from overuse at every training and practice, aches that only worsened significantly when he made a decision to go for a run that morning. The run was much longer and much more exerting than usual, despite the pain that had only continued to increase.
Everything that morning went almost as expected until he made one particularly heavy step on his hurting foot by mistake, which resulted in a much more abrupt pain immediately. Instead of giving himself a break, however, he kept going and downplayed that sharp feeling; any inconvenience wasn't enough to stop him from extra training.
In addition to his run, he made a far worse mistake during practice after school. Thinking back on it, a surge of regret and despair pulsed in his chest:
"Oikawa, you're limping again," Iwaizumi called from beside him as they made their way to the court after a brief timeout. "You should sit down."
"What do you mean?" Oikawa stood in place to prepare for a serve. "I'm perfectly fine!"
"Your foot clearly isn't. You need to-"
The whistle cut Iwaizumi off, giving Oikawa the signal to begin his serve. With everyone watching him, he was ready. Oikawa closed his eyes, mentally taking himself through the movement. How high to toss the ball, the timing of his jump, and the angle at which he would hit it. He was determined to send it over with all force and win a point for his side.
Oikawa swung his arms and jumped up, but this exertion on his foot threw his timing off. Luckily he was still able to send the ball flying into the court on the opposing side of the net, not as gracefully as he wanted but still successful nonetheless. A point was scored.
But he didn't have time to celebrate. As if in slow motion, Oikawa looked down at his feet and noticed that his left foot was not positioned for a proper landing. And then came the impact. A sickening crack split through the air as he fell with all his weight on his injury, unable to catch himself. From there, he sat on the floor as an increased amount of pain burned through his foot, worse than anything he felt in his life. Perhaps it would have brought him to tears if he wasn't surrounded by his teammates.
The coaches approached him with their questions to gauge the severity of his injury, which everyone concluded required immediate hospital treatment. The hospital was where Oikawa found out he fractured his foot, an injury bad enough to leave him in endless pain and stop him from doing what he loved most.
"Why didn't you listen to me when I told you to take it easy? You were limping all week," Iwaizumi stated with crossed arms, bringing Oikawa back to reality from his recollection of earlier events. "Even if you didn't have that bad serve, I'm sure you'd still be here for a stress fracture with how much you overworked yourself. But of course, you just had to keep going."
Oikawa replied lightheartedly, "Well, you know what I always say. 'If you're going to hit it, then hit it 'till it breaks.'"
"No. Don't you dare say that about your foot. We shouldn't be here- we should be watching a movie or having dinner somewhere or literally anything else besides this."
"Aw, Iwa-chan. It was just a joke to lighten the mood. Think of this whole thing as a... as a different type of date! It's romantic in its own special way."
Iwaizumi rolled his eyes, "I really don't see what's so romantic about sitting in an ER while we wait for the doctor to come back and tell you how long you'll have to go without volleyball.”
"Come on, don't say it like that! I mean, it can't be that bad, right? Who knows? I might not even be benched for too long- I'll probably be back after three weeks or so," Oikawa grinned optimistically.
"Drop the act, dumbass. This isn't like the time you had a sprain. Your foot is broken. You're in a cast. If you ask me, you'd be lucky to come back to the court normally in six weeks."
For a brief second, Oikawa's smile faltered. It was a barely-noticeable gesture, but Iwaizumi still caught a glimpse of it and remained silent after that. Knowing that Oikawa's cheerfulness was more forced than not, it was only a matter of time before he showed what he truly felt.
"Okay, let's talk about your treatment plan," the doctor said as he entered the room and sat down with a clipboard.
Oikawa asked right away, "When will I play volleyball again?"
"Patience, Oikawa-san. I will get to that. Luckily, the bone should heal properly without additional work like surgery or physical therapy- you'll just need to come back several times so we can check its progress."
"Yeah, yeah. That's great. So how long until I'm back on the court?"
"Ah, well..." The doctor trailed off in preparation to share disappointing news, "You'll wear this cast for the next six weeks, and once it's removed you'll need an orthopedic boot for about two weeks after that."
"Wait, that's- Um, sorry, you're saying eight weeks without volleyball?" Oikawa leaned forward. He turned his head to Iwaizumi, expecting him to have an "I told you so" look on his face, but when Iwaizumi returned the glance his expression was sympathetic and disappointed instead.
"It may be closer to nine weeks from today, actually," the doctor clarified. "Even after you discontinue the orthopedic boot, you must give yourself additional time to recover. If you were to re-injure your foot, treatment would be very rigorous and even then it could ruin your ability to play the sport at all."
"I- oh. Well, that's a little scary, isn't it?" Oikawa chuckled nervously. "Don't worry, I'll treat my foot better from now on. I promise."
"Very good. And with that, I will leave this nurse to situate you with your crutches and then you may go home. You should be fine with over the counter medication for the pain, so no prescription is necessary," the doctor declared and stood up to leave the room, just as a nurse entered with a pair of crutches and a packet of care instructions.
Once Oikawa was free to leave the hospital, he and Iwaizumi made their way down the sidewalk outside. It was late by that time, and the sun had long since set. In the illumination of the street lights, the two of them continued on at a slower pace for the sake of Oikawa's injury, stopping every so often so that he could reposition himself on his crutches or simply take a break.
"Am I still going too fast for-" Iwaizumi began to ask when he noticed Oikawa had fallen behind once more, but he cut himself off when he turned around to see Oikawa standing in place with his cast resting gently on his other foot, making no attempt to catch up. "You good?"
"Man, these crutches really make my hands sore," Oikawa complained as he moved over to a nearby bench and sat down without putting any weight on his injury, just as the nurse had shown him earlier. “And don’t even get me started on my foot! Who knew broken bones could hurt this bad?”
Iwaizumi approached him and chose not to sit beside him. Instead, he stood with his arms crossed as he ridiculed, "You should have considered that before you did this to yourself, dumbass."
"Iwa-chan, that's not what you're supposed to say! You're supposed to be nice to a poor guy like me!"
"It was your own fault, though. I even told you multiple times to take a break. Did you? No. Of course this was going to happen to you eventually."
"I'll know for next time. Everyone makes mistakes, oh well."
"Ugh. Will you stop that?”
"Stop what?"
"That stupid act of being okay with this. You're obviously faking it and it's just annoying."
For another brief moment, Oikawa's smile fell. He quickly reinforced it, however, and reassured with too much brightness in his voice, "I'm being genuine! If you're so annoyed with me, just drop me off at my house and then leave, haha."
Iwaizumi let out a long sigh, "But you know I can't do that."
"And why not?"
"Because my house is closer from here, you're struggling to keep up, you might as well just stay over," Iwaizumi suggested. Based on how his tone of voice contrasted with his facial expression, it was obvious that he was only pretending not to like this idea. "And I mean, someone has to be there if you need something, right? You're pretty immobilized so..."
"Aw, that's so sweet! I knew you had a nice side to you somewhere," Oikawa beamed.
"I'm only saying this because I know you'll just end up spamming me with text messages if I leave you."
"Ha, yeah. You're right about that."
Once they returned to Iwaizumi's house, Oikawa dropped his crutches to the floor and immediately sank onto the couch in a way that kept the weight off of his injured foot. There, he gritted his teeth, "It just won't stop aching! This sucks."
"I know, I know. I'll give you pain medicine once I settle. You're not going to school tomorrow, right?" Iwaizumi asked as he put their shoes away and hung up his jacket.
"What? Of course I'm going," Oikawa stiffly sat up again, cringing from the pain. "You know I can't just stay inside all day. I'll even go to practice for moral support."
"You sure? Don't you think it’d be hard watching us without being able to join?"
"That's not true. The only thing is that my school uniform is at my house, I think. Maybe you could go get it?"
"Why would it be at your house? You changed out of it into athletic clothes for practice, put it in your bag, and went to the hospital with your bag on you. Unless you left it somewhere else, shouldn't you still have it? I can wash it if you want."
"Aw, look at you paying close attention to me like that. It's adorable," Oikawa stood and held onto Iwaizumi's shoulders to support himself. Once he was stable, he briefly pressed his lips to Iwaizumi's in a light kiss.
"I... whatever. I'm going to get you some medicine and hopefully you'll shut up," Iwaizumi blushed and helped Oikawa back onto the couch before he left the room, flustered. Oikawa smiled with an acknowledging nod.
It was when Oikawa was alone that he felt his fake smile drop, his mask of positivity break. Looking down at his cast, he put his hand over the solid material as tears welled in his eyes, enough to blur his vision but not yet ready to spill. He couldn't cry. He refused to allow himself such a thing after he had done so well with pretending up until that point. If only he could last just a bit longer, if only he could keep himself composed a bit more, everything would be okay.
Once Iwaizumi had retrieved the pain reliever and a bottle of water, he returned to see Oikawa curled up on the couch with his head lowered and his hands over his cast, visibly upset. Without a second thought, Iwaizumi sat down beside him and placed the medicine aside, "Okay, look at me. Look me in the eyes."
Oikawa slowly lifted his head up and gazed into Iwaizumi's eyes. They were soft and full of compassion as he told Oikawa, "No more fake smiles, got it? You've done that too much tonight."
Oikawa shook his head in denial. As he gritted his teeth and drew in a shaky breath, he refused, "It’s my only option. Injury or not, I have a volleyball team to lead. It would hurt their morale to see me upset about it like this."
"And where's that team right now?" Iwaizumi put his arm around Oikawa and pulled him against his chest, speaking in a gentle voice. "You know you can cry when it’s just me."
Oikawa buried his face into Iwaizumi's shoulder and sniffled, entering that state he had taken so much care not to. His tears finally began to fall. “Ugh. I’m in so much pain.”
"It’s going to feel that way for a while. You’re strong, you can get through this," Iwaizumi soothed. “Let’s talk about all this together, okay?”
“Okay,” Oikawa’s breath hitched in his throat. He hesitated before speaking again, and when he finally did his voice was trembling as he looked away. "You know… I’m really going to miss playing volleyball.”
There wasn’t an immediate reply for this, or at least not anything Iwaizumi could bring himself to say. It was true for him, too- he knew he would miss having his beloved beside him on the court for their games and practices.
“It’s kinda funny how stupid I was,” Oikawa cried as he made a futile effort to dry his tears. “I mean, I knew my foot was messed up and I ignored it! I ignored you!”
Iwaizumi replied, "I hate to say it but you had to face the consequences to fully realize the problem. As much as that sucks, at least we know you won't overwork yourself again."
Oikawa didn't have the strength to respond with anything more than a nod. A heavy silence fell over them as more tears streamed down his face and onto Iwaizumi's shirt, which he clutched so tightly with one fist. His quiet sobs went beyond any instance of sadness; it was the torment of grief.
"You'll be able to play again. I know you will," Iwaizumi wiped away Oikawa's tears, only for more to fall in their place. The captain was not convinced. Instead, he turned his head away from Iwaizumi's hand and choked out in horror, "What I hurt my foot in the future?”
“Hey, take a deep breath. You’re starting to-“
“How could I be a professional volleyball player like this?!” Oikawa’s volume was rising. “One more injury and my career is ruined! -sniff- I’m so scared!”
”Deep breaths, Tooru,” Iwaizumi said with more assertion and placed his hands onto Oikawa’s shoulders. “We can’t have you hyperventilating like this.”
This was what Oikawa's whole world revolved around, and yet, it was forced to disappear for a while; the great king was out of commission and off his throne, out of the court and trapped in the shadows of long recovery. If he could turn back time and undo it all, he would without any hesitation.
"We just have to follow the doctor's instructions to make sure it heals the best it can- there's not much else we can do right now. I promise you'll get to play again, and you'll be extra careful not to injure yourself," Iwaizumi leaned in even closer and kissed his forehead.
Oikawa closed his eyes, which caused a fresh wave of tears to fall, "It's just... it's too long for me."
"Yeah. Way too long, of course it is. You know what? Just come here," Iwaizumi put his hand up to Oikawa's tear-soaked chin and gave another affectionate kiss, this time on the lips.
"Tooru. I love you. Don't forget that, okay?"
"I love you, too. I love you so much."
They went into another kiss and this time, they remained there without pulling away for a while. Blush across their cheeks, racing hearts, and shared warmth, there was nowhere else in the world they wanted to be. Even after the gesture, they kept their foreheads together with closed eyes.
Iwaizumi eventually moved away in reluctance, but their eyes lingered together for a moment longer. Forcing himself to stand from the couch against his own will, he concluded, "Alright, you need rest for better recovery. I'll go get out the futons so we can sleep."
By the time Iwaizumi had set up all that was necessary for sleeping, he returned to see that Oikawa had taken the medicine and was dozing off on the couch. With a kiss to Oikawa's cheek to wake him, Iwaizumi helped him up again so that he would be more comfortable in proper bedding.
In Iwaizumi's room, he helped Oikawa down to the floor and took his crutches so that they weren't in the way. Oikawa settled on the futon beside Iwaizumi's and pulled the thick blanket over himself.
"The doctor said you need to elevate your foot, so here's this," Iwaizumi reminded as he carefully lifted Oikawa's casted foot and placed two pillows beneath it. Then he asked, "Do you want anything else? How much does it still hurt after taking the medicine?"
Watching him show concern like this made Oikawa chuckle sleepily. This side of Iwaizumi was quite rare, but it made sense in this situation, considering their closeness and the fact that they were alone. "Iwa, I'm okay. You should get some sleep, too."
"If you say so. Please tell me if you need something," Iwaizumi settled himself beside Oikawa, laying on his side to face him. Just as they were about to fall asleep, he asked one last time, "Are you sure you'll be okay?"
"It's going to be hard getting through it but... I mean, you're here with me. That makes it a little more bearable," Oikawa inched closer and wrapped both his arms around Iwaizumi, who accepted the embrace gladly. From there, they fell asleep in each other's arms.