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Tooru is used to getting gifts. It’s no secret that he has more than his fair share of admirers. So it’s not really all that shocking if Tooru finds a bag of homemade cookies, some sort of stuffed animal, or if vending machine snacks or drinks show up on his desk occasionally. If anything, he really appreciates it – Tooru doesn’t even remember the last time he had to buy anything with his own money.
Except, since the start of third year, Tooru’s noticed that some of the gifts he’s been getting lately are a little too specific.
There’s one day, after lunch, when Tooru walks back into the classroom, only to find a box of his favorite tea sitting on his desk. He stops in his tracks when he sees it, feeling a grin spread across his face because now he doesn’t have to go buy more tea with his pocket money.
And then his smile falls, because he’s not sure how this secret gift-giver even knew he’d just run out of tea…or even how they knew this was Tooru’s favorite tea. He just shakes the thought out of his head, because he’s pretty sure it’s just a coincidence. After all, there was a group of girls who asked him what kind of things he likes a few days ago, and Tooru thinks he probably mentioned that he likes herbal teas when he was talking to them. So it probably is just a coincidence that one of the girls managed to give him his favorite tea at the perfect moment.
Tooru goes to sit at his desk, and he picks up the box of tea and puts it in his bag. He glances over at Iwaizumi, who stayed in the classroom during lunch to study, his nose in a math book, and brows furrowed in concentration.
“Did you see who left me tea, Iwa-chan?” Tooru asks, wanting to know who it is he should thank.
Iwaizumi glances at him quickly, before turning back to his book, and after a moment he shrugs, “It was already there when I came back from the bathroom.”
Tooru doesn’t think too deeply about Iwaizumi’s reply, instead he’s already thinking about how he can’t wait to get home later and make himself a cup of tea.
It’s the day after Tooru sprains his ankle that more of those strange gifts show up. There are three of them this time, and Tooru is pretty sure they’re all from the same person – he’s not sure why he thinks that, but it’s just the feeling he gets when he sees them all arranged neatly on his desk.
The first item is a topical pain relief cream – so whoever it is knows he sprained his ankle during practice the other day, but that doesn’t really narrow down who it could be, and it also doesn’t raise any red flags either. The second item is a cream bun – baked goods are one of the more common things Tooru is gifted by his admirers, and it’s no secret that he loves bread-based sweets. But the third item is what gives Tooru pause. It’s a dvd case – probably a movie of some sort, he’s not sure since it’s placed face down on his desk.
Tooru carefully lowers himself into his seat, placing his crutches on the ground so that they won’t be in anyone’s way, or become potential tripping hazards. Then Tooru picks up the dvd case and flips it around and immediately drops it as if he’s been burnt. It’s a sci-fi movie, some really obscure one that Tooru hasn’t seen yet, but as soon as he saw the cover it gave him chills. He’s not sure how whoever this gift-giver is knew that he was a fan of this genre (though, that’s probably the understatement of the year) – let alone how they knew that he’d watched most mainstream or popular sci-fi movies. That was the kind of thing he doesn’t tell most people about. The only people who know that about him are his close friends – so pretty much only Iwaizumi, Hanamaki, and Matsukawa. And the fact that the dvd was also placed faced down was throwing him off – whoever this was knew this was something he was mostly trying to keep to himself.
He flips the dvd so that it’s face down on his desk again, then whips his head towards Iwaizumi, who’s just come into the classroom, and is sitting down at his own desk. Though Tooru had spotted Iwaizumi’s bag at his desk when he’d come in earlier, so he knew his friend had gotten there before he had.
“Iwa-chan,” Tooru starts, voice serious, “did you see who left these here?”
Iwaizumi looks at Tooru, then at the gifts on his desk, “Those weren’t there earlier – someone must’ve come in while I was running errands for Yamamoto-sensei.”
Something in Tooru’s mind isn’t satisfied with that answer, so he asks, “Are you sure it wasn’t you?”
Iwaizumi immediately glares at him, and Tooru is pretty sure that if he wasn’t currently injured that Iwaizumi would hit him for saying that, “If I wanted to give you a gift, why would I leave it at your desk? Moron.”
“You don’t have to be so mean about it,” Tooru says, sticking his tongue out at Iwaizumi, who just rolls his eyes in response.
But on the inside Tooru is seriously freaking out, but he tries not to show it, because maybe he is just being paranoid.
It happens again a couple weeks later. Tooru walks into the classroom to find a bright green pen on his desk, one of those pens that has a gaudy plastic figure on the top that makes the pen horrible to actually write with – and to go along with the horrendous shade of green, there’s a plastic green alien head at the top of it.
This time, Iwaizumi isn’t in the classroom – he’s in the library, so Tooru really has no leads on the mystery gift-giver/stalker this time. But he’s pretty sure this isn’t just paranoia anymore.
He brings it up while he’s cleaning the gym with Hanamaki after practice.
“I think I have a stalker,” Tooru says casually as he pushes the mop across the gym floor, because he doesn’t really want to admit that this whole stalker thing is actually a serious issue.
“Is that what you’re calling your fan club these days?” Hanamaki jokes as he goes around picking up stray volleyballs and putting them back in the basket.
Tooru would laugh if he wasn’t so freaked out, “No, I’m serious. I’ve been getting a lot of weird gifts lately – like the tea, the dvd, and the alien pen – It’s weird, right?”
Hanamaki pauses to think for a moment before he says, “Like…an actual stalker?”
“I think so,” Tooru says, “It’s too many coincidences.”
“You and Iwaizumi are in the same class,” Hanamaki says, “Doesn’t he know anything about it?”
“Apparently, the stalker only leaves the gifts when no one's in the class.”
“How convenient.”
***
Hajime doesn’t know why he’s been leaving gifts at Oikawa’s desk. It’s just that sometimes when he goes out, he sees something that reminds him of his friend, and the next thing he knows, he’s already bought the thing. Of course, he could just give the gifts to Oikawa, but that would mean he’d have to admit that he’s thinking of Oikawa way more than Hajime is okay with admitting. So, he just leaves the gifts on Oikawa’s desk.
Though he has to admit, maybe he is being a bit specific with his gift-giving, so after the alien pen, he starts leaving more generic gifts for Oikawa to find, things that blend in with the kind of things his fan club leaves for him. So for a while, he just leaves milk bread, and cream buns, and strawberry milk, because he’s already had one close call and he really doesn’t need anymore of those.
It’s not until November when Hajime gives another specific gift. It’s a box of Oikawa’s favorite herbal tea, because it’s been a few months since he’d given him the last one, and he’s probably almost out of it by now.
So during lunch, Hajime excuses himself to the bathroom. Only he goes to the classroom instead, and he takes the box of tea out of his bag, and places it on Oikawa’s desk. He’s ready to turn around and go back to his friends before they start to wonder why he’s taking so long.
But just as Hajime places the box down on the desk, he hears the faint sound of a camera shutter, and he whips his face around to be met with Hanamaki’s phone camera and Hanamaki, who has one thin eyebrow raised at him.
All Hajime can do is blush, because he really has been caught red-handed. And he doesn’t really think he can get himself out of this one.
“Looks like I’ve found the mysterious stalker,” Hanamaki says. “I’ve got to say, Iwaizumi, this whole thing was a lot more boring than I originally thought.”
“Stalker?” Hajime echoes. “What stalker?”
“Oikawa told me a few months ago that he’s got a stalker,” Hanamaki says with a shrug, “I thought I’d try to figure out who it is…and well this makes a lot more sense now.”
“Oikawa never told me about a stalker,” Hajime says.
“He thinks he’s just being paranoid – probably didn’t want to worry you,” Hanamaki says, “Couldn’t you just give him the gifts like a normal person?”
Hajime can feel his face burning, and he opens his mouth to reply, but no words come out because his reasoning really does sound stupid and ridiculous.
“Ohhh,” Hanamaki says in a tone Hajime immediately dislikes, with a stupid smirk on his face. “I get it. You’ve got a crush on him.”
“What?” Hajime shouts, maybe a little too loudly, “No – I don’t – what are you talking about?”
“You should be an actor, Iwaizumi,” Hanamaki jokes, chuckling to himself, “you’re very convincing.”
“I told you, It’s not like that.”
Hanamaki just turns around and starts walking out of the classroom, pocketing his phone as he does.
“Wait, you’re not going to tell Oikawa – are you?” Hajime asks, trying to sound nonchalant but failing miserably.
Hanamaki turns to look at him, another stupid smirk on his face, “Don’t worry, I won’t tell him about your crush…but we should get back there before they start wondering why we’ve been in the bathroom for so long.”
***
For the most part, Tooru doesn’t get any more weird gifts – besides the occasional box of tea. And as weird as some of the gifts were, he figures it really must’ve just been a bunch of coincidences. Leave it to Tooru to be all dramatic and get bent out of shape over what turned out to be nothing.
One afternoon, Tooru is in Iwaizumi’s room, and they’ve decided to start working on homework. Tooru pulls out the green alien pen to write with, and after about half an hour he notices Iwaizumi staring at the pen in his hand.
Tooru grins and shows the pen off to Iwaizumi, “Do you like my pen Iwa-chan?”
“It’s really ugly,” Iwaizumi replies, frowning at the pen.
“Oh absolutely. It’s hideous,” Tooru agrees, “and it’s awful to write with, but that’s what makes it so good.”
“It’s great…because it’s horrible?”
Tooru nods, “Exactly.”
Tooru almost misses the slight smile on Iwaizumi’s face, but he’s not sure what exactly to make of the expression.
“Maybe I should start collecting them,” Tooru says, but he’s not being serious. One terrible ugly pen is more than enough. And there’s something that’s been bugging him for a while now, so Tooru figures this might be a good way to test a theory.
It’s only a week later when Tooru walks into the classroom and finds another gaudy pen on his desk. This time it’s one of those pens that has a bunch of multicolored pens inside it, but it has a little UFO on top of it. And well, he’s pretty sure he knows what’s going on now.
Tooru sits down at his desk, and picks up the pen, then turns to show it to Iwaizumi. “Look at how ugly it is,” he says in a chirpy voice.
And after Iwaizumi glances at the pen, Tooru puts it in his bag.
It’s only a few days later when Tooru and Iwaizumi are at their lockers, putting their shoes away and changing into slippers that Iwaizumi finds it.
It’s a little pink envelope decorated with stickers and washi tape – one with a pink gingham pattern all over it and another decorated with little pink bows. It’s some of Tooru’s best work, if he says so himself.
“The hell?” he hears Iwaizumi mutter.
Tooru glances over at the little pink envelope in his friend’s hands, feigning ignorance, “Oh wow, Iwa-chan – a love letter? What’s it say?”
Iwaizumi clicks his tongue but he opens the envelope anyway, pulling out two movie tickets for a rerun of the original Godzilla movie, and a letter that Tooru spent far too long writing (mostly because he needed to make sure Iwaizumi wouldn’t recognize his handwriting).
When Iwaizumi doesn’t say anything, Tooru goes “Well? What’s it say?”
Iwaizumi folds the paper back up, “It’s nothing.”
It’s hard to get a sense of what Iwaizumi’s thinking, but Tooru really hopes this plan works, because otherwise it’ll be really embarrassing if Iwaizumi doesn’t show up at the movie theater.
On the next Saturday, Tooru is running a little late to the movie theater where he’s supposed to meet Iwaizumi for his plan’s grand reveal. It just took him a little longer than usual to pick a halfway decent outfit, and his hair refuses to behave the way he wants it to. But he’s only a few minutes behind, so it should be fine, so long as Iwaizumi actually shows up like the letter asked him too.
When he arrives at the movie theater, he sees Iwaizumi standing in front of the entrance, pacing around nervously, but he’s just dressed like he always is. He glances up, like he’s expecting someone, and sees Tooru instead.
“What are you doing here?” Iwaizumi asks accusingly, “You saw the tickets didn’t you?”
“It’s just a coincidence Iwa-chan,” Tooru lies, “Are you here for a date?”
“No,” Iwaizumi says grumpily. “It’s not like I could just not show up. I’m just gonna wait until the girl shows up so I can give her these tickets back.”
Tooru holds his hand out, and Iwaizumi looks at him like he has two heads, “What are you doing?”
“You said you wanted to give the tickets back to the girl,” Tooru says, like it’s obvious (he’s really having a little too much fun with this whole charade), “Well, I’m the girl.”
“What the hell?”
“I’m waiting, Iwa-chan.”
“What the hell were you thinking, you–you stupid idiot,” Iwaizumi mutters.
He looks like he’s about to say more, so Tooru decides to say something before Iwaizumi can get too upset and ruin his plans, “I was thinking I was asking you on a date.”
Honestly, this whole thing is worth it just to see the look on Iwaizumi’s face when Tooru says that. His mouth falls open and he just looks so confused.
“So are you going to give me my tickets back or not?” Tooru asks, trying not to react to Iwaizumi’s dumbfounded expression.
Iwaizumi shakes his head, his face going pink, “No…”
Tooru smiles at that, then he takes the still dumbfounded Iwaizumi’s hand in his own, and drags him into the theater.