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It’s late enough into the winter season that Christmas lights have gone up, and snow has begun to dust the sidewalk. They had stopped for dinner at a small ramen shop they’d both grown up loving, and had then ended up strolling down the sidewalk.
Despite his hands being cold, Oikawa fusses about getting Iwa’s out of his pocket, fighting to lace their fingers together.
Iwa gives him a smile as Oikawa huffs and settles, leaning in to nudge his shoulder.
“Okay… I’m going to give you only one guess as to where we’re going next.”
Oikawa makes some kind of drama about rolling his head to the side to look back at him.
“Only one guess?” Oikawa says. “What happened to three?”
“You shouldn’t need three,” Iwa replies.
“Is this something I asked for…?” Oikawa replies, sounding a little uncertain before turning his eyes back to where they were walking. He swings their hands together, thinking the question through.
Back home in Miyagi. Neither of them lived here anymore, but they’d made the trip to stay with family and enjoy the holidays. And despite himself, Oikawa had felt surprisingly… content, to be back on the streets he’d grown up in. He certainly wasn’t the same person - but then again, neither was Iwaizumi. So it was nice to return in good circumstances.
At least he could count on the fact that after all these years, Iwa still enjoyed planning their dates. Between family, holiday shopping, plane rides and old friends, it had been almost impossible to steal a moment alone together. So they’d set aside an evening to be just the two of them.
Iwa planning so much made it easier for Oikawa to not have to worry about reservations or opening hours, but he did consistently get requests to “guess,” which was a trade off he had to accept.
What was even down this way?
There’s a bridge over the river, some generic shops, the bus stop… they could be going somewhere… If this were earlier in the night, he’d guess one of the nicer restaurants for dinner, but they just ate… oh, they just ate!
Oikawa nods down the street. “We’re getting dessert,” he declares, confident in his assessment.
Iwa almost manages to smile, though he fights against it to maintain his aloof disposition. “Where?”
“Where? Uh…” Given the fact it was frozen and cold… probably not gelato, or ice cream, both of which he thinks are sold a short walk away. Which meant…
It had been almost a decade since he’d lived in this town. He has no idea if anything’s closed down or not since he left, but there’s only one other shop ‘dessert’ could come from that he knows of.
“Are you taking me to that bakery that we used to terrorize after school?” Oikawa says.
This makes Iwaizumi break into a bigger grin, and he leans into him slightly.
“See, you didn’t need three guesses!”
“You’re lucky I’m smart,” Oikawa says, shaking his head in amusement. There’s a street to cross, and a light to wait for, and Oikawa trots across the snow as they weave their way through the city towards an old, familiar sight.
He glances back the way they’d come, frowning slightly. Old, familiar ramen shop they've frequented since middle school… bakery two blocks from Seijoh they spent all their cash at when they were sixteen…
The bakery was not merely Oikawa and Iwa’s personal obsession back in the day. The proximity to Seijoh made it a hotspot for every student there, wanting chocolate muffins, creamy mini-pies, hot chocolate, chocolate strawberries… The line-up had always been out the door after school.
“Do you remember…” Oikawa cuts himself off, and for a second, Iwa looks over as if excited by his sentence starter.
“Remember…?”
“We came here with Makki and Mattsun one day, after practice,” Oikawa says. “And Makki stole a cookie.”
“What?” Iwa says.
“Not, like, in the criminal way,” Oikawa chuckles. “But the cashier was so frazzled, and handling like four orders at once and he just… wasn’t paying attention and walked out with it. He freaked out and thought they were going to have him arrested, so he didn’t go back inside for that entire year.”
“Oh, yeah,” Iwa says, as the memory clicks. “He’d stand outside and make us get his shit.”
Oikawa snickers in return, leaning over to put his nose down into the cold shoulder of Iwa’s jacket.
“Is that all you remember about this place?” Iwa says.
“I mean… I think I ate shit on the sidewalk out front and got laughed at by the barista once,” he says, lifting his head again.
Iwa laughs. “No, I’m not talking about that,” he says, at the same time he’s glancing up at the familiar sign, and the familiar doors on the familiar street. He pushes the door open, holding it for Oikawa.
“Oh, you’re feeling chivalrous today?” Oikawa teases, mocking a curtsey as he steps inside.
“Don’t make it a thing. Watch your step,” Iwa snipes back. The door swings shut behind them, and they both step up to glance at the menu.
After a minute of looking over the menu, which had been changed and rearranged probably a hundred times since Oikawa was last here, Iwa says: “Hey, wait a second-” and pulls away to step up to the counter. Curiosity getting the best of him, Oikawa wanders after, leaning in to listen.
“Do you guys still sell those double chocolate raspberry loaves?” Iwa asks, tapping his fingers on the glass of the counter. “With the-”
“Oh, yes, sorry,” she says. “We discontinued that last year. A lot of customers have been complaining, though, so it might come back.”
Iwaizumi’s jaw tenses.
Oikawa knows him well enough to know that that tiny little tense is indicative of something much larger. This is bothering him.
“Hey, it’s fine,” Oikawa says, patting Iwa’s shoulder. “They got lots of goodies-”
“But that was your favourite,” Iwaizumi says, turning to look back at him, lifting his hands up to rest gently on Oikawa’s elbows. “I want you to have your favourite things.”
Oikawa snorts, nose scrunching up. “Maybe when I was seventeen. But there’s so many good looking things to try, I’m not gonna throw a hissy fit about it-”
“That’s not the point,” Iwa says.
“How is that not the point?” Oikawa says. “Let’s just get something for dessert, I wanna go walk by Seijoh and see how much has changed-”
“I was gonna take you down to the river, under the bridge,” Iwa says. Oikawa pulls back slightly, still mostly amused, but a little bit surprised by the finality in Iwa’s voice. As if he were shutting down Oikawa’s expectations of having a choice this evening.
“...Why?” Oikawa says.
“Because-” Iwa gets a very pursed expression for a moment, then moves his hands up to Oikawa’s shoulder. “Did you really not notice?”
Oikawa blinks, trying to think for a moment before saying: “Notice what?”
“Oh my god, you can remember Makki stealing a cookie nobody cared about, but you don’t remember our first date?”
Oikawa frowns more, head tilting over to the side.
“I remember our first date,” he says.
“We went and got ramen, and then I brought you here, and bought you a slice of that stupid loaf, and then we walked down to the river, and sat under the bridge…” Iwa says. “I was…”
Oikawa’s face screws up more. He did remember doing those things with Iwa, it seemed reasonable, but-”
“Iwa-chan, I don’t think you remember our first date,” Oikawa says.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Iwa replies. “I just said-”
“We got together in the summer,” Oikawa interrupts. “Between second and third year. We went to a festival together. You kissed behind a takoyaki stall. Remember?”
Iwa blinks at him.
“Nope,” Iwa says. “It was right before Christmas in our second year, you were complaining about being locked inside because the outdoor courts had been snowed in, so I invited you out. Ramen, loaf dessert, under the bridge.”
Oikawa does sort of recall this, thinking for a moment before saying: “That wasn’t a date. We went and got ramen together all the time. You called me pathetic for not having any hobbies other than volleyball and we walked home separately. That wasn’t a date.”
“Yes it was,” Iwa says. “I was so nervous to ask you-”
“Iwa, if that was a date,” Oikawa says, clapping his hands onto Iwa’s shoulders now. “Why the hell did we start dating at the summer festival months later?”
Iwaizumi thinks about this for a second, before saying: “Well that was when we made it official, because I kissed you for the first time, but-”
“Exactly,” Oikawa replies.
“No, I-” Iwa thinks about this, before saying: “Being exclusive and committing to dating is different from a first date,” he replies. “I was so nervous to ask you out, I was so embarrassed taking you out, and at the end, when we were under the bridge, I was so frazzled and worried about you making fun of me that I-”
He cuts himself off, eyes growing vacant.
“That you what?” Oikawa says.
Iwa closes his eyes. “That I chickened out of telling you how I felt.”
Oikawa snaps his fingers. “Bingo, there it is. You forgot to tell me it was a date.”
“I can’t believe… that I never told you that that was a date.”
“I can’t believe I could’ve had a boyfriend six months earlier,” Oikawa says. “Damn.”
Iwaizumi opens his eyes. “Wh… so… if I had told you, back then, you still would have said yes? The six months to the summer didn’t… change anything?”
Oikawa smiles, stepping forward to wrap his arms gently around Iwaizumi’s neck.
“Hajime, I’ve been telling people I was going to marry you since middle school,” Oikawa says. “You could have asked me out in the middle of class, or at your parents home, or while in the middle of a game, and I wouldn’t have ever said no.”
Iwa smiles slightly. “Sap.”
“You love it,” Oikawa replies, leaning in to press a soft kiss to his lips. “I appreciate the effort, though I have no idea why you thought recreating the shitty attempt at a date two sixteen year olds had was any good. We could have gone anywhere. We have adult money now.”
“It’s romantic,” Iwa mumbles. “You’re always telling me to be more romantic.”
“Yeah, but why this? Why… stress over a stupid loaf being discontinued?”
“...Because you’ve been saying you’re gonna marry me since middle school,” Iwa says, pulling Oikawa’s hands off his shoulders. “So I wanted to… do something romantic, before asking you to make good on that.”
Oikawa smiles warmly for a second, before his eyes slowly start to widen, and he stands up a little bit straighter.
“Wait-” he starts. “You don’t mean-”
“I forgot that I didn’t confess to you under that bridge,” Iwa says. “But I wasn’t going to chicken out this time, so… Thought it would be nice to have it come full circle.”
Oikawa lifts a hand to his mouth. “You mean it? You’re not just-”
“I mean it,” Iwa repeated, chuckling slightly as he pulled back to open his jacket. Oikawa panics, reaching forward and grabbing Iwa’s arms to stop him.
“No, no-”
“No?” Iwa says, flabbergasted. “You don’t want-”
“Not here!” Oikawa says, distraught. “What about your plan-?”
“I didn’t confess to you under the bridge back then, and I just told you, so… it kinda happened organically-”
“Don’t you dare,” Oikawa says, somewhat aggressively re-buttoning Iwa’s jacket. “You haven’t actually said it yet. Save it for when we’re under the bridge. We can tell everyone you proposed in the same place you confessed. That’s adorable.”
“Even if it didn’t happen?”
“Hey, I’ve been lying about shit way more important than that, who cares? It’s a cute story. I want it.”
Iwa stares at him for a moment, before breaking into laughter, and giving him a nod. “Okay,” he says, before more softly adding: “I love you. So much. I have since… forever.”
“I love you too,” Oikawa replies, but before Iwa can step forward and kiss him, or hold him, or say anything, there’s a sniffling noise, and both of them turn their head slowly, to look over at where the barista girl was fanning her face, trying to stop her tears coming out.
“I’m sorry,” she says, when she notices them looking at her. “That was just so… I know the recipe for that loaf is still in our books, I’m gonna get it for you, one minute-” she croaks, turning to hurry to the back room.
“You don’t need to-” Iwa raises a hand to call after her, but she’s already on a mission.
Oikawa laughs, reaching out to take Iwa’s hand and pulling it towards him to kiss his knuckles.
“Let her,” Oikawa says. “It’ll be nice to have that recipe. It was always my favourite.”
Iwa smiles slightly. “I’ll pick up whatever ingredients we need for it tomorrow.”
“It’s a date,” Oikawa replies, before letting Iwa pull him in by the hand he held and kiss him properly.