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It was a known fact that the moment you turned seventeen, the name of your soulmate would appear on the inner wrist of your right hand.
Most people looked forward to this moment their whole life, staying up eagerly on the eve of their birthday to catch the first glimpse of a name being written on their wrist.
It was June 9th, 11:57 P.M., and Hajime Iwaizumi couldn’t sleep.
He groaned, turning over on his side before sitting up and checking his right wrist for the sixth time that minute.
As expected, it was blank.
He glanced at the clock.
11:58.
Iwaizumi got up from his bed and started pacing the room, keeping an ever vigilant eye on his wrist. He knew there was no point in checking; he knew the name would only show up at midnight, but he just couldn’t stop.
His phone buzzed.
from shittykawa 11:58 P.M.
IWA CHAAAAN
has the name appeared yet??
iwa chaaaaan tell me tell me tell me
Iwaizumi couldn’t stop the small smile on his face as he grabbed the phone and replied.
to shittykawa 11:58 P.M.
go to sleep crappykawa
from shittykawa 11:58 P.M.
so mean iwa chan :((((
i’ll sleep when you tell me!!
to shittykawa 11:59 P.M.
it’s not midnight yet
dumbass
from shittykawa 11:59 P.M.
mean!!
Iwaizumi scoffed and threw the phone on his pillow, before turning to the clock again.
Still 11:59 P.M.
Iwaizumi rubbed the spot where the name would show up absentmindedly as he continued pacing. Maybe it would be someone he didn’t know? Maybe it would be someone from their school. It could even be someone from the volleyball team! Maybe, just maybe, it could be-
His phone buzzed, the reminder he’d created for 12 A.M. flashing on the screen. He felt a slight tingling, almost as if an invisible hand was writing the name that would decide his future. He exhaled, wrapping his fingers around his wrist before removing them to reveal the name on it, and-
He froze.
Well, shit.
to iwa-chan!! 12:00 A.M.
iwaaaaaa chan!
happy birthdayyyyyy !
WHOS YOUR SOULMATE
to iwa-chan!! 12:05 A.M.
iwa-chan are you ignoring me >:/
to iwa-chan!! 12:13 A.M.
iwa-chan??
to iwa-chan!! 12:29 A.M.
hellooooo? iwa-chan???
to iwa-chan!! 12:44 A.M.
fine, be that way :(((((((
tell me tmrw at school!!
Oikawa frowned at his phone. It had been nearly six hours since he’d texted Iwaizumi, and there was still no response. He knew Iwaizumi had read the texts, so why hadn’t he…?
“Iwa-chan!” he cried loudly when he saw the spiky-haired boy approach the classroom, causing a few people to swivel his way. Oikawa steadfastly ignored them in favor of calling out again. “You ignored my texts!”
When Iwaizumi gets closer, Oikawa can see the heavy bags under his eyes, as well as…
“Have you been crying, Iwa-chan?”
“What?” Iwaizumi barked, scrubbing a hand roughly over his eyes before scowling. “No, I haven’t. That’s ridiculous. It’s, uh, allergies.”
The denial was as good as a confirmation for Oikawa, who narrowed his eyes. Iwaizumi was acting awfully suspicious…
His eyes darted to his friend’s right wrist.
“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa started, choosing his words carefully while still keeping his eyes trained on Iwaizumi’s wrist. “Why is your wrist hidden?”
His eyes widened, and he immediately covered his wrist with his other hand to hide the gauze wrapped around it. “Uh, sprained it. Last night,” Iwaizumi lied, avoiding Oikawa’s gaze.
Oikawa wasn’t dumb. He knew how to connect the dots. “This is about your soulmate.”
Iwaizumi exhaled. Really, he should have known better than to lie to Oikawa. They’d known each other for years; obviously Oikawa had learned Iwaizumi’s tells. “Yeah.”
A beat of silence passed.
“So…” Oikawa drawled. “Who is it, then?”
“I’m not telling you.”
“IWA-CHANNNN!” Oikawa whined, and Iwaizumi glared at him.
“Shut up, Crappykawa, everyone’s staring,” he hissed.
Oikawa could care less. “But who’s your soulmate? Come on, at least give me a hint!”
“Fine, FINE. Just… shut up.”
Oikawa grinned.
“It’s… someone I know.”
Oikawa tilted his head. “Someone you know,” he repeated slowly, tasting the words in his mouth. “Do you like them?”
“No. I mean, yes. But no.”
Oikawa frowned. “It’s a simple yes or no question, Iwa-chan.”
Iwaizumi huffed out an annoyed breath. “I don’t know why I’m telling you this,” he muttered under his breath. “But… yeah. I like them. Have for a long time, I guess.”
Oikawa tensed at the confirmation, and oh, was that jealousy he felt? No, it wasn’t, of course it wasn’t. There was nothing to be jealous of. Still, he found it particularly hard to force the smile back onto his face. “Okaaaaaay,” he stretched out. “Then what’s the problem? Why are you so upset?”
“I’m not-” Iwaizumi started, before cutting himself off with a sigh. “They don’t like me back.”
Oikawa blinked.
Then blinked again.
“WHAT?!” he exploded, quieting down after receiving another of Iwaizumi’s harsh glares. “What are you talking about?” he hissed. It was rare, nearly impossible, for a pair of soulmates to be incompatible - it went against the very laws of nature! “That’s impossible!”
“Yeah, well, apparently it isn’t,” Iwaizumi snapped back, bristling. “Deal with it.”
“But-” Oikawa pressed. “That doesn’t make sense!” How could someone not like Iwaizumi? Sure, he was a little rough on the outside, but he was caring, hard-working, handso-
Oikawa cut off his train of thought sharply. “How do you even know that? Have they gotten their soulmark yet?”
Iwaizumi hesitated. “No, he hasn’t turned eighteen yet.”
He hasn’t turned eighteen yet. Oikawa did a mental victory dance - Iwaizumi had slipped up and given him the gender of his soulmate! He’d never known that Iwaizumi swung that way, but Oikawa didn’t have any problem with it, of course. “Then you can’t know that they don’t like you! Really, Iwa-chan, I thought you were smarter than this,” Oikawa scoffed.
“I just KNOW, okay?” Iwaizumi yelled, before quieting. “Just drop it. I don’t want to talk about this any more, Shittykawa.”
Oikawa opened his mouth to protest, before closing it with a pout at seeing the way Iwaizumi had hunched into himself.
“Meanie.”
At lunch, Oikawa tried again.
“Iwa-chan, look!” he said, sliding over a bowl of agedashi tofu to the spiky-haired ace. “I got you your favorite~”
Iwaizumi frowned, narrowing his eyes in suspicion, but took the tofu anyways. “Thanks,” he muttered, poking at the food with his chopsticks. “But I’m still not telling you my soulmate.”
Oikawa huffed an annoyed breath. “Please, Iwa-chan?”
Iwaizumi shook his head. “Why do you even want to know so bad?”
Oikawa couldn’t answer that. “Why are you trying so hard to hide the name from me?” he shot back, and Iwaizumi frowned into his tofu.
“It’s none of your business.”
“Of course it is,” Oikawa responded instinctively, and Iwaizumi glared at him.
“Last I checked, we were talking about my soulmate, not yours,” he said, but Oikawa caught a flash of a grimace after he’d said it.
Oikawa waved it away. “Come on, give me another hint. If I guess it right, will you tell me?”
Iwaizumi scoffed at that, shoving a piece of tofu in his mouth. “Suuuuure,” he drawled, and Oikawa narrowed his eyes. That must mean it was someone Oikawa wouldn’t expect, right? “And I’m only giving you one more hint, and then you drop it. Okay?”
“Yes, yes, fine, sure, whatever.”
“My soulmate’s name starts with a T.”
Oikawa paused, internally running through a list of names. Someone Iwaizumi knew, name started with a T… ah, and he knew his soulmate was male because of Iwaizumi’s slip-up from before! And it had to be someone Oikawa normally wouldn’t guess...
A name flashed into his mind, and Oikawa froze.
“No,” he breathed out, and Iwaizumi stiffened.
“What?”
“No,” Oikawa repeated. “It can’t be.”
Iwaizumi was looking a little nervous. “Uh, are you-”
“TOBIO-CHAN IS YOUR SOULMATE?!” Oikawa screeched, slamming his hands on the table.
A look of pure confusion crossed Iwaizumi’s face. “What the fuck,” he said. “What the fuck- why would you even-? What the fuck,” he repeated, shaking his head. “God, of course not, jesus fucking christ, Oikawa.”
Oikawa slowly relaxed. “You’re sure?” he insisted.
Iwaizumi shook his head, an amused smile flitting across his face. “Yes, I’m sure. And here I was worried you’d figured it out.” The last part was muttered under his breath, and Oikawa frowned. Why was Iwaizumi so insistent on hiding his soulmate from Oikawa? And for that matter, why did Oikawa feel such a burning need to know who it was?
Before Oikawa could try guessing more, the bell rang, announcing the end of lunch. They both started packing up, Oikawa deep in thought.
“This conversation isn’t over, Iwa-chan,” he remarked as they walked to their next class, and Iwaizumi smiled wryly.
“Sure it isn’t.”
As they walked to practice, Oikawa tried a new approach.
“How about instead of me asking you every day for the rest of your life, you just tell me who your soulmate is now and save all the trouble? Or if that’s too much, what about another hint?” He nearly had the name in his grasp, he knew it!
Iwaizumi shot him a side glare. “No. No more hints, and I’m not telling you the name.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.”
Oikawa frowned at the stubborn set of his friend’s jaw, before stuffing his hands in his pockets and pouting. “Fiiiiiiiiine,” he whined. “I’ll drop it, I promise.” If he couldn’t get the name from Iwaizumi, well…
“Really?”
“Really.”
Well, there were always other ways to get it.
“Iwa-chan!”
Thwack.
“Yeah, nice kill!”
Coach Irihata clapped his hands together. “Okay, that’s enough practice for today. Wrap it up!”
The sound of squeaking shoes filled the gym as the team dispersed to clean up the gym. When Iwaizumi glanced at Oikawa, he saw the other lost in thought while taking down the net. He’d been like that all through practice, and it was rubbing Iwaizumi in the wrong way. His friend had promised to drop the soulmate thing, but Iwaizumi couldn’t help but stay cautious.
In reality, he knew there was no way he could hide the fact that they were soulmates forever. After all, a soulmate bond went two ways, and that meant that Iwaizumi’s name would show up on Oikawa’s wrist on his birthday - barely a month away.
Still, Iwaizumi would try to avoid it for as long as he could. He usually wasn’t one to hide from confrontations, but this…
This would not end well.
So he’d avoid it for as long as he could until the inevitable blow up.
Luckily, Oikawa had stopped trying to pry into it, so maybe Iwaizumi could rest a little easier…?
No, knowing Oikawa, it was probably best if he stayed on his guard.
“Oi, Crappykawa. Snap out of it,”
Oikawa startled, before throwing a casual smile in his direction. “Sorry, Iwa-chan!” he chirped, before seeming to trip over the folded net at his feet. “Oops~!”
He fell into Iwaizumi, and they both tumbled to the ground.
“Get it, Oikawa!” he heard Hanamaki say from the other end of the gym, and Iwaizumi flushed red.
“Shut up!” he barked, and moved to get up before he realized Oikawa was holding something. His eyes widened before he covered his bare wrist, luckily just in time before Oikawa could see the name. His name. “Oikawa, you dumbass,” he growled. “Give it back.”
“Iwa-chaaaaan,” Oikawa whined petulantly, still twirling the gauze in the air. “I just want to see the name!”
“Give it BACK.”
“Not until you show me!”
“I said,” Iwaizumi said through gritted teeth. “Give. It. BACK!”
He dived for Oikawa and sent them tumbling across the gym floor, Iwaizumi desperately trying to snatch the covering while simultaneously hiding his wrist - which turned out to be more than he could handle. Within a few minutes, Oikawa had him pinned to the floor, his right wrist dangling in the air.
“I didn’t want to do this, Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says, sickly sweet, but Iwaizumi could hardly hear it over the rushing noise in his head. This couldn’t be happening. “None of this would have happened if you had just told me that your soulmate was…” he started to unpeel his fingers from Iwaizumi’s wrist slowly.
No no no nonononono-
“...Tooru Oikawa?” The name came out in a whisper, Oikawa’s grip loosening as the name became clearly visible to everyone in the room. Iwaizumi took the chance and tore his hand out of Oikawa’s grasp, ignoring the whispers of the rest of the team behind them.
“I hope you’re fucking happy,” he snarled, before yanking the strip of gauze from Oikawa and storming outside.
So, Oikawa had fucked up.
Everyone in the gym turned their attention to Oikawa, who’s hand was still holding on to… nothing. Because Iwaizumi had left. Right. Oikawa slowly dropped his hand, blinking dazedly.
What…
What had just happened?
“My soulmate’s name starts with a T.”
“No. No more hints, and I’m not telling you the name.”
“And here I was worried you’d figured it out.”
“No, he hasn’t turned eighteen yet.”
“But… yeah. I like them. Have for a long time, I guess.”
“They don’t like me back.”
“I just KNOW, okay?”
“Uh,” he started eloquently, trying to grab ahold of his racing thoughts and failing. “I. Should go. Yeah. I’m, uh. Going to go now.” And with that, he rushed out of the gym, just in time to see Iwaizumi turn the corner hurriedly. Oikawa looked down at his hands, surprised to see the gauze still there in his hands, currently being strangled to death by how hard he was clutching it.
Right.
What was he doing just standing there?
He forced himself into motion, running after where he’d seen Iwaizumi - where he’d seen his soulmate oh god Iwa-chan was his soulmate holy fuck what was happening - go around the corner. Soon enough, he saw a familiar head of spiky hair a few feet in front of him.
“Iwa-chan!” he called out, but Iwaizumi only increased his pace.
“Iwaizumi!” he tried again, but to no avail either.
“Hajime.”
At this, Iwaizumi finally slowed to a stop, but he still faced away from Oikawa. “What the fuck do you want, Oikawa,” Iwaizumi said tiredly. “Haven’t you done enough already?”
Oikawa opened his mouth, then closed it, before opening it again. “Iwa-chan,” Oikawa began helplessly. “I didn’t- I didn’t know.”
Iwaizumi sent him an unimpressed stare. “No shit.” He shook his head, then sighed. “Look, there’s no need to make this into a big deal. I know there are platonic soulmates too, nothing has to change. Just… ignore what I said before.”
Oikawa’s mouth felt as dry as a desert, but he managed to push the words out. “You were wrong.”
“...what?”
“You-” Oikawa started, swallowing hard. “You said that your soulmate didn’t like you back. You… you were wrong.”
Iwaizumi’s eyes widened imperceptibly. “What do you mean?”
Agh, did he really have to spell it out? “I,” Oikawa said, forcing himself to meet Iwaizumi’s gaze. “Like you. As more than a friend. And, um. I’mreallyhappyyou’remysoulmate,” he rushed out the last part, squeezing his eyes shut. He heard nothing but silence, and when he dared to peek open his eyes, he saw a bewildered expression on Iwaizumi’s face.
“You… aren’t joking?”
“No!” Oikawa replied, aghast. “I wouldn’t joke about this!”
Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow at that, but finally released the tension from his shoulders. “...then, where does that leave us?”
“...you could start by asking me out on a date.”
“Oi, Crappykawa, who says I should be the one to ask you on a date? Why don’t you ask me out on a date?” Iwaizumi retorted, but the smile on his face betrayed him, and Oikawa grinned in response.
“Well, I don’t think you’d be able to enjoy the sort of sophisticated dates I’d- OW, Iwa-chan!”
“You deserved that.”
“...okay, maybe a little.”