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"Oikawa, it's the middle of July."
"So?"
"So it's hotter in Southern California than the face of the Sun right now, and the beaches are going to be packed with tourists."
"Exactly! I came all the way to America to surprise my grumpy, prickly boyfriend, and I want to go on romantic beach date— see those sexy, tanned arms in action."
"I didn't realize that you considered swamp ass to be romantic. It's supposed to hit 40°C tomorrow. "
"So crude, Iwa-chan."
Despite his attitude, Iwaizumi still reached for his hand, lacing their fingers together as they walked. Oikawa had only been visiting for a few days, and was slated to be in America for another week yet, but he still couldn't get totally used to being able to freely show affection this way.
"You love it."
He tried to pull back a little and only link their pinkies, but the former ace's broad, stubby fingers clung on tightly.
On instinct, Oikawa swiveled his head to look around them and make sure they weren't getting the evil eye.
"Iwa-chan. . ."
The street wasn't deserted, but no one else was closer to them than 10 meters away, and totally absorbed in their own conversations or phones.
"It's okay here, idiot," the other man said quietly, bumping their shoulders together lightly. His voice was tinged with the sort of fondness he only revealed when they were alone together. "No one cares. Los Angeles is just about the gayest city in the US."
A warm, gentle, breeze blew over them as they walked back to Iwaizumi's apartment from dinner, rustling the palm trees that lined the sidewalk. Dusk was fading into twilight and the sky was a lovely blueish-purple; not quite full night, but well past sunset.
"I thought we were in Irvine?"
"Close enough."
"Well, where's the closest beach, then?"
Iwaizumi thought for a few moments.
"Corona Del Mar is probably the closest. . . but, you're in luck; I already had plans to be at Doheny Beach tomorrow. It's a bit of a drive, a little ways south of here, but it's less likely to be as crowded as the marina or harbor, water's a little nicer. . ."
"Sounds great— I hope I'm not intruding though, if you already had plans? Something for one of your classes?"
"You were born to intrude, 'Kawa," Iwaizumi laughed, shaking his head at him. "And yeah- it's for class. They have some good beach volleyball courts there."
"Oooh! I liked the little bit of beach I got to play when I ran into Chibi-chan in Brazil a few years ago— what kind of class meets at the beach though?"
His boyfriend had already finished his undergrad and was working on a Master's in Kinesiology. How big are the classes for advanced degrees? I thought Master's programs were more one on one than lower division classes. . .
"It's just for a project, the whole class isn't going, dummy-" Iwaizumi forestalled the rest of his questions as they turned onto the street his apartment was on, "- as for the rest, you'll see when we get there."
"Iwa-chan, where do you keep your spare sunscreen?" he called from the bathroom the next morning.
"I thought you already packed sunscreen?"
"I packed mine, yes; I need a higher SPF. I suppose I could share with you. . . A shame though, this stuff cost me almost 10,000 yen back home. The cost of beauty, I suppose."
"Don't worry about it, I already put some on-"
"My dear Iwa-chan— the sun is a deadly laser, you really should be reapplying every few hours."
"You know that you can leave some things here at the apartment, right? You don't have to haul your entire wardrobe around with you? I promise, we'll be coming back here."
"Iwa-chan, I never thought I'd say this, but I think living in California has made you too relaxed," Oikawa huffed, kneeling down on the floor to pack a second beach tote. "You might like to live by the soles of your sandals, Mr. Beach Bum-"
"I'm the bum? You literally gave me less than a day's notice that you were crashing here, and you had to fly from the other side of the world, asshole."
"There's my charming Iwa-chan," he sighed. "You'd think that learning English would have expanded your vocabulary a bit more."
"Oikawa. . . I hope you know I'm not lugging all of this crap up and down the beach," Iwa groaned, surveying the carnage spread between his small kitchen, living area, and dining table. He'd gotten up a bit early to pack some snacks and drinks in a cooler he'd found in the broom closet of Iwa's kitchen, and now was trying to go down the list of what else he may need to bring.
"Also, you said you'd be ready an hour ago."
"Well, if someone had kept his hands to himself and let me do a bit of pre-packing last night. . . Do you have an umbrella?"
Iwaizumi closed his eyes and sighed before marching over to one of the tote bags Oikawa had already filled, hefting it up by the straps like it weighed nothing.
"Tooru. I'm going down to the car. If you're not in it by the time I am, I'm leaving without you."
"Did you have a nice nap, Princess?"
Oikawa blinked awake in the passenger seat, a warm, calloused hand running over his leg, from knee to the mid-thigh hem of his shorts.
As Iwa had predicted, they'd hit some traffic. "Sorry— fell asleep," he said thickly, yawning widely and sitting up. His sunglasses sat askew on his face and he pushed them up into his hairline to rub his eyes.
"Yeah, I noticed. You've been drooling on my shoulder for the last 20 minutes," Iwa replied, pulling away and handing him a bottle of water from the cupholder. "When you're ready, the courts are just right over there."
Iwa pointed across him to a wide section of sand a little to their right.
"We actually managed to park pretty close, so don't worry about unloading all your crap. It'll be fine in the trunk for a little while."
"It's okay, I'm going, I'm going," Oikawa squawked, hurrying to get out of the car and follow Iwaizumi. At the very minimum, he was still going to bring his bag with the towels, sunscreen, and change of clothes inside.
The beach was a bit more crowded than he'd hoped— there seemed to be several clumps of people cloistered around the volleyball courts that Iwa had pointed out; specifically, some sort of beach tournament appeared to be setting up— but the sand did stretch on and on for miles, for so far that he realized he had to squint to see the ocean on the horizon.
The day was already warm, at about 10:30am, and Iwa had warned that it would get even hotter.
Must be a fellow student, Oikawa thought, as he spotted Iwaizumi at the edge of one crowd, talking to a broad young man at least a head taller than him. A fast paced, nonsensical buzz of English being spoken by the other beachgoers slipped past his ears— he could understand it if he focused on one conversation at a time, but the idle gossip of strangers lost interest to him the second the figure Iwa was speaking to half-turned towards him.
Wait. . . there's something familiar about that guy. . .
"Well, lookie here! Guess it really is a small world after all," a smooth, scaly sounding voice purred behind him. "First, the Demon Crow Child and now the Crown Prince of Blue Castle— makes me feel right at home."
The voice spoke in perfect Japanese.
Oikawa jumped and whipped around, landing turned around 180 degrees from the direction he'd been facing.
Shiratorizawa's Guess Monster was standing next to him, so pale that he almost glittered in the Southern California sun.
Did he always have red eyes?
"Monster-kun?"
"Most people just call me Tendou now, but I'm flexible."
"I almost didn't recognize you without your trademark hair-"
The former blocker didn't seem at all put out by Oikawa's rudeness, tipping back the ball cap that he wore backwards, revealing a fuzzy head with outlandish red hairs that couldn't have been more than a centimeter or two long.
"I live in France now, work in a kitchen; keeping it short is easier than wearing a pesky hairnet every day," Tendou shrugged. "Don't need to ask about you— Argentina seems to be treating you well, Mr. All Star Setter."
"Yes. . . yes, it is," he managed, recovering enough to bow politely. "France, eh? I've never been, but I just signed with Argentina's national team; if I'm lucky, maybe I'll get to see Paris at the Olympics in a few years."
Tendou reciprocated, inclining his head and sweeping his arms out grandly, like he really was greeting a member of the royal family. Bastard never did do anything in half measures.
"We'd be happy to have you; is this your first time in America too?"
"Yes," Oikawa admitted, as they started to gravitate towards the volleyball courts again. "You?"
"Oh yes, this is the first time I've really been able to travel in a few years. Good old Japan— the government sure does love to give us expats a hard time about living abroad, don't they?"
He was about to agree when Iwa caught sight of them and waved them over.
"Ushiwaka," Oikawa greeted testily, until Iwa elbowed him in the ribs.
"Be nice."
"Now I see why you wouldn't tell me anything about this 'project' of yours, Iwa-chan."
"I did not know that you would be visiting, Oikawa," Ushijima said, bowing his head briefly, "Though it seems even the Continental Divide is not enough to keep you and Iwaizumi-san apart for long. It is good to see you."
"Yeah, it's a regular old home week— Iwa-chan, can I have a moment?"
His boyfriend brushed him off, not unkindly.
"Ushijima's dad is UC Irvine's volleyball coach. I've been studying with Utsui-san for a while now, and Ushiwaka visits him ever couple of summers; sometimes we hang out. Don't go getting jealous, Crappy-Kawa."
"I'm not jealous!"
"I have no romantic interest in Iwaizumi-san, Oikawa," Ushijima added, in the flat tone that one might remark on a turn in the weather.
"Speak for yourselves, I'm on vacation," Tendou threw in, grinning evilly, even as he wrapped an arm around Ushijima's waist and gave the taller man a peck on the cheek.
Before Oikawa could argue any more that he'd wanted a nice, quiet day at the beach with the love of his life, another familiar sound split the crowd nearby.
"GWAAAAHH!!!"
"Shitty-kawa, we don't need two setters on this side-"
"But Iwaaaa, I really want to set for Chibi-chan," he pouted.
"I liked playing on your side of the net too, Great King," Hinata offered helpfully, "We could always play one set and then switch up the teams to keep it interesting."
"Fine— but I hope you treasure every hit, Ushiwaka; this is the closest you'll ever get to me having gone to Shiratorizawa."
Hinata was in town with his Brazilian beach partner, a man nearly Ushijima's size named Heitor. Together, they'd made in to the semifinals of the charity beach volleyball tournament that had been held that morning, but had been eliminated by another Brazilian team just after noon.
At this point, the day was becoming so surreal that Oikawa hadn't even bothered to ask what justification Kageyama had for being in this particular corner of Southern California today.
Logically, he knew it must have had something to do with Hinata— even now, as adults, the way Tobio pretended not to be following the shorty around like a lovesick puppy made Oikawa irrationally angry.
They divided up: Iwaizumi, Hinata, and Kageyama on one side, Ushijima, Tendou, and himself on the other. Heitor and his wife had gone on to do some more touristy things while they had the opportunity to be in the States; so he didn't even have the leg of 'Oh, well I have to be on that side because I'm the only other one here that speaks Spanish' to stand on.
"Are you sure you're not pushing yourself too hard, dumbass?" He overheard Kageyama ask his ginger hitter.
"Nope! I've learned to photosynthesize!" Hinata joked, slapping Kageyama's back genially, "The sun and the beach give me life; I can go for another couple hours, at least!"
Shou-chan, you're going to have to either be more obvious or less oblivious. Despite the pining looks he caught them shooting back and forth when they thought no one was watching, it was pretty clear that the two Karasuno alum weren't an item. Yet.
Even though they drank copious amounts of water— Iwaizumi hadn't complained about running back to his car to retrieve their cooler to share with the others— apparently, 39° C was in fact too much for most of them.
"Attention, fellow volleyball idiots: you do realize that the ocean is right there, yes?" Tendou pointed off to their left, during a water break. "I propose that we jump in and abandon the folly of land-dwelling for now."
"Agreed," Iwaizumi panted. "Truce for now?"
"Truce," Ushijima echoed, collapsing more than sitting down in the middle of the sandy court.
Oikawa wanted to argue that they were close to being done anyway (Hinata's team was only 3 points ahead), but just then, a bit of ocean breeze picked up and sent a short burst of cooler air their way.
"Okay fine— last one in the ocean is a stale onigiri."
There were some calmer sections of the surf just a little ways down the beach from where the volleyball courts were.
"Dumbass, if I get on your shoulders, you're going to drown."
"Whatever, Grumpy-Yama, I know you don't know how to swim. Besides, I'm touching the bottom right now, look!"
The water lapped at Hinata's collarbone, but to be fair to him, he was technically standing with his head above the water.
Oikawa swam up behind Iwaizumi, snaring him around the waist and pretending to bite his bicep as he stood up in the shallows.
"Gotcha, Iwa," he pressed a series of quick kisses to the spot he'd grazed with his teeth. "Good thing you're so salty; none of the other fish want to eat you."
Iwaizumi hummed and slid an arm around him under the water, pulling him close. Ushijima and Tendou were floating on their backs a short distance away, while Hinata and Kageyama bickered between the surf and the shore.
As overheated as they were in the blistering sun, the cool Pacific waters swirling around them made pressing up next to Iwaizumi all the more worth it.
"Look— they're so cute together. I think Tobio-kun gets his penchant for name-calling from you, Iwa-chan."
"Huh?"
"I think you two are the only ones in the world that think 'dumbass' is a term of endearmeeeeeennt!!!"
He trailed off in a scream as Iwaizumi scooped him up and tossed him into an oncoming swell. Salt water burned in his nostrils as he righted himself, letting the force of the wave push him right back into his boyfriend, who was howling with laughter now.
"Something touched my foot!" Oikawa yelped, scurrying to climb up Iwaizumi's bulky frame. "Iwa-chan, save me!"
"That's a piece of kelp," Ushijima intoned, likely pulled from his conversation with Tendou by Oikawa's squalling. "That species is invasive to the area but it's not toxic to humans."
"Thank you, David Attenborough."
They splashed and played with their friends in the water for another good hour, or more; eventually though, the other four had to depart.
He and Iwa clambered out of the water and said their goodbyes, trudging up through the sand to where their towels were spread out on the sand.
"Here: hand sanitizer," he passed the bottle off to Iwa, after squeezing out a dollop onto his own hands. "If the sun is a deadly laser, the ocean is a giant petri dish."
Iwa grunted in acknowledgement.
"May as well eat and chill here for another hour or so," Iwa said, drawing out some of the snacks from the cooler. "It's getting close to 5, so traffic is gonna be bad for awhile, may as well wait it out."
They ate in companionable silence for a bit. The beach had emptied out as the day had grown hotter, so they had a fair chunk of sand and surf to themselves.
"Thank you," Iwaizumi said suddenly, just as the sun was starting to approach the horizon. Oikawa paused mid-bite of sandwich, looking over at his boyfriend.
"Oh my god; the beast has learned some manners. The curse is finally broken," he teased.
"Don't be an ass," Iwaizumi dropped his gaze. Is that sunburn or a blush? "I'm trying to say that I really appreciate all the planning and stuff you did. Today was really fun, Tooru."
His heart pattered erratically in his chest hearing Iwaizumi say his given name.
"Of course, Hajime. . . It's been, what; six months since we've seen each other?"
"Something like that," the other man smiled, knocking his knee to Oikawa's playfully. As soon as they'd finished eating, Iwa stood up and held a hand down to help him up.
"I thought you weren't supposed to go in the water for, like, two hours after eating?"
He accepted the hand up anyway.
"Eh- we're not going out that far," Iwa assured him. "I just wanna kiss you in the ocean without feeling like half the Japanese National Team is watching me."