Work Text:
1
It’s his first day off in over a week, and all Hajime wants to do is watch a mindless action movie and eat heart attack-inducing amounts of popcorn. He and Yuutarou, his coworker, have arrived at the movie theatre, bought their tickets, and have just walked up to their final obstacle before the blessed relaxation of the auditorium: the concession stand.
This is where the proverbial shit hits the fan.
Leaning against the register in front of him, arms crossed over its top and chin resting delicately on his arms, is quite possibly the most attractive person that Hajime has ever seen. As they approach his register, Attractive Guy stands upright, and a soft smile makes itself at home on his face.
“Hi,” he says. “What can I get for you?”
Hajime looks down to the guy’s nametag, which reads ‘oikawa~’. He looks back up to the employee’s face, and finds that he is not currently capable of speech, which is alarming.
Yuutarou, the great friend that he is, takes over. “We’ll just have an extra large popcorn.” He looks back over at Hajime, nudges him a bit with his shoulder, and says “Right, Hajime?”
“Oh,” Hajime says, tearing his eyes away from Oikawa’s face. “Uhh. Yeah.” This does not usually happen to him. He is an ICU nurse, for crying out loud. He is unshakeable. Except when extraordinarily hot guys are part of the equation, apparently.
Oikawa smiles, taps the screen of his register, says “Be right back,” and winks at Hajime before turning around to grab a popcorn bucket.
Hajime insists on paying. Oikawa hands him the popcorn, then skips around the corner to retrieve the receipt. Hajime watches him grab it from the printer and flip it over, pulling a pen from his apron pocket with his other hand.
Then a coworker of Oikawa’s sidles up next to him, blocking Hajime’s view. He might not be able to see what’s going on, but he can hear it—
“Holy shit, Tooru! Who’s the lucky guy?”
“Shut up,” Oikawa-Apparently-Tooru says pleasantly. When he arrives back at his register, he passes the receipt to Hajime and smiles. “Have a good night,” he says sincerely. Then he’s calling a customer over from another line into his.
“Umm, so,” Yuutarou begins as they walk toward the auditorium. “That guy was…uhh…”
Hajime flips the receipt over. In elegant handwriting, it says ‘Oikawa Tooru’ followed by a phone number. There are hearts sprinkled around the whole thing.
“Huh,” Yuutarou says, looking over Hajime’s shoulder. “What are you gonna do?”
Hajime spares his friend a brief glance, then shoves the receipt roughly into his jeans pocket. “Fuck,” he says eloquently.
“Surely not on the first date!” Yuutarou exclaims, then cracks up at his own joke. Hajime elbows him hard in the side.
2
Hajime hears him before he sees him.
“Hey Tooru, your boyfriend’s here!”
“You’re so mean! He’s not my boyfriend!”
“Yeah, but you wish he was.”
Hajime stands there more than a little awkwardly until Tooru arrives at his register, openly pouting. It makes him look way too cute. It also almost makes Hajime sorry that he hadn’t texted him since he had gotten his number two weeks ago. It was just too strange—Hajime didn’t know anything about him, not even how old he was, and a lot of movie theatres employed mainly teenagers, and Hajime was way too mature to be dealing with this kind of crap anyway, and—
“Iwaizumi-san?”
Hajime looks around quickly, trying to figure out who had called his name, until his gaze lands back on Tooru, who is giggling just a little.
“How did you…?”
“Your name is on your jacket.” Tooru points at Hajime’s torso. “Unless…” and his face begins to fall inexplicably, “that’s someone else’s jacket?”
“What? No, it’s—” This was all very odd and Tooru’s stupid pretty face was very distracting and he was probably like 17 years old and Hajime just needed to stop doing this to himself. “It’s my jacket.”
“Oh, that’s a relief.” Tooru leans forward across the counter excitedly, and Hajime tries very hard not to stare down his shirt. “So you’re a nurse, Iwaizumi-san? That’s what the letters after your name mean, right?”
“Oh. Yeah,” Hajime says awkwardly. “I work in the local hospital’s ICU.”
“Wow, your job must be very exciting!” Tooru exclaims.
“Well, not particularly. It’s the emergency department nurses who see most of the excitement.”
Tooru opens his mouth to speak again, but it’s only a whimper of pain that comes out as one of his coworkers passes behind him and elbows him in the back.
“Ouch! Everyone is so mean to me here,” he says to Hajime, all wide-eyed and sorrowful. “Even though I’ve been here longer than most of them. Anyway,” he adds before Hajime can get a word in, “what can I get you?”
Hajime orders a small popcorn this time, consumes the whole thing before the previews have even ended, and shames himself out of getting a refill. He sets his popcorn tub on the ground as the movie begins.
Two hours later, he kicks the tub over as he stands up, having forgotten it was there. As he reaches down to pick it up, he notices there appears to be writing on the bottom of it.
‘I wanna finish our conversation’ it reads, then the same phone number that’s on the receipt which is sitting on Hajime’s bedside table.
Hajime sighs and trudges out of the auditorium, placing the tub in the trash on his way out.
3
“Why are you suddenly so interested in seeing movies, hmm?” Yuutarou asks as they enter the theatre late one night.
“Shut up,” Hajime says quickly. After a short pause, he adds, “There are a lot of good movies out right now.”
“So good that you couldn’t even wait one whole week to come back here? I know you’re dead tired, ‘cause I am too. You could be at home sleeping, but instead—”
“God, fine, he’s really cute, okay?!” Hajime fairly explodes. A young mother and her child whip their heads around to look at him, but he pays no mind. “I know there’s probably a huge age difference between us and I’m never gonna feel okay about texting him so just let me have this, okay? Just this!” Hajime is red-faced and panting a little by the end of his tirade, and Yuutarou looks on, his expression a cross between ‘I can’t believe you just admitted that here’ and ‘You big dork, I knew it’.
“Well,” Yuutarou says as they step into the line to buy tickets, “at least you’re not deluding yourself.”
Hajime shoots him a long look, eyebrows raised and mouth drawn into a flat line, and Yuutarou has the audacity to laugh.
“You’re a terrible friend,” Hajime mutters, and doesn’t mean it at all.
When they reach the concession stand, Tooru is in the process of charming a middle-aged woman into buying some discounted candy, and she concedes just as they step into his line. If Hajime is fidgeting just a little, Yuutarou doesn’t say anything about it.
As Tooru hands the woman her change, thanking her with a wide grin, his eyes meet Hajime’s and the grin turns into more of a pout.
“Iwaizumi-san,” he says immediately, before the woman has even finished collecting her purchases, “why haven’t you—” He stops when he catches sight of Yuutarou, and the pout becomes even more pronounced.
“What,” Hajime says, because what else could he say.
Tooru casts his gaze down and to the side, looking far too much like a lonely puppy. Hajime’s heart thumps audibly without his permission.
“Nothing,” Tooru says, looking back up at them. He chews at his lower lip for a second, eyes still way too sad-looking, and then says, “What can I get you?”
Hajime has sworn off popcorn for the time being, since he frequents the theatre so much as of late, so he orders a medium pop and pays for Yuutarou’s pop as well, since he’s the one who dragged him to the theatre against his will. This does not escape Tooru’s notice, and he somehow manages to look even more sorrowful as he passes them their drinks after retrieving Hajime’s receipt.
“Enjoy your movie,” he says, and then slinks away from his register through an open doorway and out of sight.
“What the fuck,” Hajime says, before Yuutarou pulls on his arm in order to get him out of hearing range of the few small children standing around.
“Honestly,” he says, dragging Hajime towards their auditorium, “you’re a nurse. Don’t swear in front of children.”
Hajime can only stare at him for a moment, then he nods and begins climbing the stairs to the seats.
It’s only when he starts pulling the wrapper off his straw that he sees the small note scrawled on it: ‘Is he your boyfriend?’ and the phone number again.
“For the love of—” Hajime starts, then lets out a long sigh which sounds more like a growl as he buries his face in his hands.
“What?” Yuutarou asks, looking over his shoulder.
Hajime quickly crumples the wrapper. “Nothing,” he says.
4
This time, Hajime marches up to a box office attendant and asks if he can just go inside the theatre to use the restroom. The girl he is speaking to wilts a little under his unintentional glare, and squeaks out, “Of course, sir.”
Tooru is strolling out from behind the stand towards his register, smiling broadly as one of his coworkers tries and fails to shove popcorn down his shirt, when he catches sight of Hajime and excitedly waves him over.
“You’re alone,” is what Tooru says, at the same time Hajime says, “When’s your next break?”
“Oh,” Tooru says. His face colors just the slightest bit, across his absurdly high cheekbones, and Hajime wants to both punch him and kiss him, he just can’t decide which one should come first. “Well, I mean, I could go now, I’d just have to ask my supervisor—” He wheels around as if looking for them and finds that approximately six of his coworkers are watching their exchange with rapt attention. “You know what,” Tooru says quickly, whirling back around to Hajime, “I’m sure now is an okay time.”
Hajime nods. Tooru pokes his register’s screen a few times, then points to a door along the far side of the concession stand. “Wait there,” he says, and then disappears.
Fortunately, he reappears about 20 seconds later, out through the door that Hajime is standing next to.
“Well,” Tooru says, and gestures up towards the mezzanine, “let’s go.”
Hajime tries very hard not to stare at Tooru’s ass as he follows him up a staircase. He fails utterly.
When they’re sitting across from each other at a small table, Tooru says, “So? Is he?”
Hajime knows what he’s talking about without needing any further clarification. “No. He’s not. I don’t have a boyfriend.” He pauses, then adds, “or a girlfriend. Or an…anyone. Like that.”
“Ahh,” Tooru says. He almost looks nervous, which is just totally unfair. “That’s, umm. Good.”
“How old are you?” Hajime blurts out. Better get this out of the way before he goes and does something stupid.
“Oh!” Tooru says, suddenly looking much happier. “I’m 22! You were probably worried about that, weren’t you? Is that why you never texted me?” He keeps going before Hajime can answer. “Geez, yeah, I’m one of the oldest people who works here, which kind of sucks sometimes, but also it means I can boss people around—”
“Thank god,” Hajime says, interrupting Tooru’s rant. “Yeah, that’s why I was a little…yeah. That’s why.” Even with that problem cleared, though, there’s still a lot to talk about. Like the fact that they don’t even know each other outside of this building. And also…
“I’m 28, though,” Hajime says, and he can feel his face flushing because this is all so ridiculous, it’s pretty clear that they both know what they want, and yet here they are floundering around like high-schoolers. “Is that okay?”
“Oh,” Tooru says, and both his voice and face have taken on a sort of dream-like quality, which makes something in Hajime’s chest twitch uncomfortably, “yes, that’s—fine. Absolutely…fine.” His eyes are half-lidded and his mouth is open just the slightest bit and it’s positively killing Hajime to not be able to do anything to him right now.
But then Tooru’s expression becomes more of a smirk, and he says, “I like older men, Iwaizumi-san.”
“Hey!” Hajime protests. “I am not old!” Tooru just laughs at him, and he can’t help but crack a smile at the sound of it.
“So,” Hajime says after a moment, “your name’s Tooru, right?”
“So forward!” Tooru exclaims, which makes Hajime blush and shake his head. “It is, yes. And if you’re going to call me Tooru, which I would very much like if you did, I’m going to call you Iwa-chan.”
“What?” Hajime splutters. “Call me Hajime, like a normal person!”
“But you’re older than me, Iwa-chan,” Tooru says, resting his chin on his palm and smiling serenely at Hajime. “I still want to convey a sense of respect.”
“There is nothing respectful about calling me ‘Iwa-chan’!” Hajime snaps.
“Would you prefer Hajime-chan?” Tooru asks sweetly.
“No, god, just—fine. Whatever.”
“Thank you, Iwa-chan. And now, I believe my break is coming to an end. But I have something I want to give you before you leave.” Tooru digs around in his apron pocket before pulling out a pen, then reaches out and takes Hajime’s hand in his free one. The action definitely does not make Hajime’s heart race. “I just wanna make sure you still have it,” he says as he begins scrawling his number across Hajime’s palm, “since you have no reason not to text me anymore.”
“Right,” Hajime says. “I will.” He pauses, then decides to sneak in some retaliation. “Thank you, Tooru.”
Predictably, Tooru’s face flushes, and he swats Hajime’s hand away playfully. “It’s impolite to make someone blush in public,” he says, hiding his face in his hands.
Hajime laughs a little, staring at Tooru, and thinks about how absolutely fucked he is.
5
“Wait,” Tooru says as they reach the bottom of the stairs. “That’s gonna disappear. Give me your phone.”
Hajime does. He goes home with a new contact, labeled ‘Tooru <3’ along with a number he’ll never forget.
+1
It’s Hajime, he texts later that night.
Iwa-chan~ is the almost instantaneous reply he receives.
Whatever. he sends. Then, When’s your next day off?
Tomorrow. Are you busy?
I can make time.
Yay! <3 <3 <3
They go out for ice cream, and Hajime insists on paying for both of them. Tooru has the audacity to blush at this, and Hajime kicks him in the ankle once they’re seated side-by-side on a nearby bench.
“Ow! What was that for?” Tooru is pouting, and Hajime wants to kiss him possibly more than anything he’s ever wanted before in his life.
“Tooru,” he says. His eyes linger on his mouth. Tooru licks ice cream off his lips, then leans forward the tiniest bit.
“Yes, Hajime?” he says quietly, and that’s all it takes for Hajime to close the gap between them. He intends for their first kiss to be chaste, but finds he can’t resist sliding his tongue across Tooru’s lower lip, and is glad he did when Tooru emits a quiet whine and opens his mouth a fraction.
When they finally draw back, Tooru says, “I think I like your ice cream flavor better,” then adds, a bit shyly, “or maybe I just like you.”