Work Text:
---
“So there was only the plain-- where the hell has Oikawa gone off to now?”
Iwaizumi is double-fisting two ice cream cones, already starting to drip in the summer heat. Hanamaki grins at him and takes one, generously volunteering to eat it in Oikawa’s place. “He does this every year, remember? Pretty-boy’s shy about making wishes so he’s gone off to do it in secret again.”
Iwaizumi sighs, an outward mask of annoyance. Deep down, he’s just put out and really, very curious.
Oikawa doesn’t keep secrets from him. Well, he tries, sometimes, rarely, okay, almost never, and it never stays a secret for very long. It seems impossible that Oikawa’s kept up with making secret wishes for Tanabata for over a decade now, and he’s never let it slip even once what they could be about.
---
“--never expected to get trapped under this enchanted komainu statue for the last 7 years--”
Oikawa slowly swivels his head around, owlishly looking up and down the street.
“--kids these days just don’t make their wishes in uncool places anymore so no one’s paid any attention to this shrine for ages and--”
All he had meant to do was hide his wish under the tiny komainu statue in this small, ignored shrine in a back street, away from prying eyes, especially away from Iwaizumi.
“--three wishes for your help, as a gift of my gratitude!”
Sure, that’s pretty convenient. Like most people, Oikawa wishes for a lot of things in his life, big and small, practical and impossible, but he never actually fleshed those thoughts out deeper than wishing for real wishes.
“Well?” the fairy asks him, hovering a few inches before his face.
He looks around suspiciously, distrustful of the serene silence surrounding them. He’s at the Sendai Tanabata Festival for the 25th consecutive year of his life, one of the biggest summer festivals in all of the Tohoku region, and he’s suddenly alone in this back street despite the earlier swarming crowds? How likely is this reality versus Hanamaki having put some sort of hallucinatory drug in his beer earlier?
“Tooru-chan, listen,” she says, tapping him on the tip of his nose, “we fairies are quite busy at this time of year, and I’ve really been away for quite a long time so I need to get back to fairy business, so if you would just spit out what you want to wish for concerning Iwaizumi--”
“Excuse you--”
“--concerning Iwaizumi-kun, then we can all get on with our lives.”
Oikawa pouts, caught out and embarrassed that he’s admitting to it so easily. Mythical deity and all, what can you do? “How did you even--”
“People usually wish for money or love and you’re not exactly struggling in the money department.”
“Oh, you watch volleyball?”
“Oh my god, an ageless fairy is talking to you, creating an inter-dimensional space for you to tell her your deepest, greatest wishes, and you want to know if she watches volleyball?”
Oikawa wails quietly to the sky, half-crushing the strip of colorful paper in his sweaty hand. He had snuck away down an alley earlier, deeper into the crowds of festival-goers eager to celebrate such a tragically romantic holiday, wanting to make his wish in peace. Every Tanabata since he’s been 14, he’s been writing secret wishes to hang onto various wishing trees around Sendai. Even if he doesn’t believe that wishes can come true like that, there isn’t any harm in trying, and for all his troubles, he kind of half has what he really wants.
Iwaizumi lives with him in Tokyo, after all. That’s almost all the way there of what he wants.
“Why don’t you just read me what you wrote on your wishing paper?” the fairy suggests, pulling at his cheek with both hands to snap him out of it. She’s a small thing, glowing like embers from the inside, maybe the size of his outstretched hand at most. Oikawa wonders how far she’d fly and how mad she’d be if he blew her away.
He looks at the crumpled wish in his hand, sighs, and decides that even if this is a hallucination brought on by the humid summer heat, there really is no harm in it.
“I wish for Iwa-chan to think of me as often as I think of him,” he reads aloud, cheeks burning at the childishness of his wish. He’s 25 years old, an actual real adult, leading an actual, real, adult life. But consistently and with no diminishing desperation every year, Oikawa finds himself back at this point, wishing for Iwaizumi to just really think of him the same way. What is he, a middle schooler?
“What are you, a middle schooler?” Fairy-chan asks. He opens his mouth to complain but then shuts up, taken aback and embarrassed by the kind, pitying smile he sees on her face. “One wish, coming right up,” she says, waves her hands, and sends him on his way with a nice smack to the face.
Oikawa wanders back to the main festival street in a daze, immediately swallowed by a wave of noise as the bustle of festival-goers returns to him. His cheek is tingling where Fairy-chan smacked him, and his voice is faint when he answers his phone as it starts to buzz in his hand.
“Shittykawa, where the hell have you been, and why haven’t you been answering your phone?” Iwaizumi demands. Something about him sounds worried, just a string of tension under the annoyance.
“What?” Oikawa asks, blinking up at the dark of the night sky. He’d meant to watch sunset with Iwa-chan earlier. Before he snuck off to that back street, before he picked up that komainu statue, before he suddenly had three wishes to make, and all that came to mind was Iwaizumi.
“--trying to call you for 20 minutes and you’ve been ignoring my calls like the truly shitty guy you--”
Oikawa grunts as he walks straight into Iwaizumi, flanked by an amused Matsukawa and an extremely amused Hanamaki. He stumbles back a step, a smile already stretching onto his face. “Oh, Iwa-chan!! How did you find me?”
Even Iwaizumi seems startled, grabbing Oikawa by the arm. They’re being jostled every which way by the crowd and it’s really nothing short of a miracle for Iwaizumi to have literally stumbled onto him. “Where have you been!?”
“Your husband was worried,” Matsukawa supplies.
“Stop sneaking off every year to hide your secret wishes,” Hanamaki reprimands, a shit-eating grin on his face. There’s takoyaki sauce smeared around his mouth. Oikawa’s lips tremble from the effort it takes to suppress his laughter.
“I just didn’t want you to miss the fireworks,” Iwaizumi says plainly, reaching up to brush his thumb across Oikawa’s left cheek. “You have something on your cheek,” he explains.
Oikawa wonders if it’s a blush creeping onto Iwaizumi’s face from doing that, or just the heat, or their earlier beers. He certainly feels drunk, especially when Iwaizumi does it one more time with the backs of his fingers, something fond and gentle and unbearable.
Looks like fairy dust, if I knew what fairy dust looked like, Iwaizumi thinks hysterically, out of nowhere at all.
Oikawa is grateful for the heavy boom of fireworks going off in the sky, maybe loud enough to cover the painful hammering of his heart. As everyone’s eyes turn skyward, Oikawa ducks his head to stare at the front of Iwaizumi’s yutaka, and he’s grateful no one is watching them when he looks up at Iwaizumi’s face again only to find Iwaizumi looking right back at him.
---
For a week after Tanabata, Oikawa is vigilant about paying attention to Iwaizumi’s behavior. Truthfully, nothing seems out of the ordinary, but he’s not sure if he’s paying too close attention so he’s missing the big picture.
In the mornings, Iwaizumi wakes him up like usual, sitting on the edge of his bed and very put-upon as he urges Oikawa awake. His hands are gentle as they shake his shoulder, and on good days, Oikawa wakes to new mornings with Iwaizumi’s fingers trailing through his hair, leaving tingles racing down his back.
In the evenings, if Iwaizumi doesn’t have to work late, he shows up at the gym to pick Oikawa up. He chats with Oikawa’s teammates like old friends and sometimes even brings them energy drinks. Oikawa puffs up with pride every time his teammates and friends gush about Iwaizumi, even if he’s not-secretly jealous about him as well, unsubtly defensive whenever anyone asks if Iwaizumi is single. The technical answer is yes. The real answer is he is far too busy with Oikawa, and that’s the way Oikawa wants it to stay.
So really, the answer is no, because single does not mean available, and it’s a good thing most of his friends and teammates understand the distinction. Oikawa isn’t above embarrassing himself in eagerly explaining what the difference means.
On lucky days, if Iwaizumi has a late morning at work or a substitute day off, Oikawa leaves the house with a wrapped bento in his hands. It perplexes him that Iwaizumi makes lunch for him when he can, and never with leftovers or canned stuff, even though Iwaizumi is happy to eat that on his own. The domesticity of it throws him off because it’s been like this since their last year of university and well before Fairy-chan was throwing around free wishes. Iwaizumi isn’t exactly the biggest fan of cooking, either, so Oikawa is right to gush about his homemade lunches to teammates or his manager between commercial shoots or basically anyone within earshot, right?
On Friday, like usual, Oikawa makes them dinner before they settle in for some old B-list movies rented from Tsutaya. They do this after taking turns for the bath, dressed in comfortable pajamas, and Oikawa never minds that Iwaizumi tends to fall asleep against his shoulder before they ever get past halfway in the movie.
By Sunday evening, Oikawa is standing out on their small balcony while Iwaizumi is in the shower, gently sweating in the summer heat. “Fairy-chan, your powers may be malfunctioning,” he says into the sky, feeling silly and indignant all at once.
He hadn’t really expected anything to happen. Maybe Fairy-chan had just been a mirage, even if she seemed so real. Oikawa should know better than to try and foist his feelings off onto a summer delusion as an excuse. If he really wants Iwaizumi to one day kiss him on--
“Excuse me?” Fairy-chan asks, slamming the balcony door shut behind him. Oikawa startles a good five centimeters into the air, turning around with wide eyes. “You’re letting the AC out, loser.”
“I probably need to seek professional help,” Oikawa notes.
“You need that anyway,” Fairy-chan snipes back, rolling her eyes. “Listen here, buddy, I don’t appreciate being summoned all the way into Tokyo with the pollution and the lights just to have my powers insulted.”
“The first wish didn’t work, though?” Oikawa suggests amicably.
“That’s not possible,” she says, but there is a hint of doubt in her face, so Oikawa doubles down on it.
“Iwa-chan hasn’t been doing anything weird or different so I’m pretty sure the wish didn’t work.”
“That’s… The wish went through, I’m sure of it!” Fairy-chan pauses, frowning. “Well...I did cast the wish as soon as you revived me, so maybe I was rusty.” A gentle pink accompanies the embarrassed pout to her mouth and Oikawa finds it very cute. He wonders if she would be opposed to being kept as a pet.
“I want to make my second wish, then.”
“Of course!” Fairy-chan replies, tossing her hair primly over her shoulder. It’s a wonder it doesn’t get tangled up in her dragonfly wings. “I’ve been granting wishes all week for Tanabata so I know I’m on point. Try me.”
Oikawa grins, pretty sure that this is no longer just a hallucination. This could be real. “I wish for Iwa-chan to tell me how he feels about me.”
“You mean...you don’t already hear enough how annoying you are? And where does all that ego come from, anyway? How do you even know that he feels any certain way about you?”
“That was very rude, Fairy-chan!” Oikawa lectures, waving a finger at her, “I’m Iwa-chan’s best friend so of course I know he feels...something different for me.” Okay, he faltered at the end there, but he’s not letting her smirk ruin his night. “I just need to know more…succinctly, okay? And don’t tell me to go find dandelions to pick off their petals and ask if he loves me or loves me not!! I’ve already done that.” God, that’s embarrassing to admit out loud. What is he, an angsty teenage princess?
“What are you, an angsty teenage princess?” she teases, waving her hands about to grant his wish. Oikawa sniffs at her but is still warmed to see the grin on her face, and with a sprinkle of fairy dust, she’s gone again, leaving him to his ever-constant woe and wondering.
“Oikawa, where are you?” Iwaizumi calls, voice muffled as he approaches the balcony from inside. His hair is still wet from the shower and Oikawa swallows, following a drop of water as it glides down the side of Iwaizumi’s neck, disappearing into the collar of his sleeping t-shirt.
Before Iwaizumi can step out, Oikawa pushes his way back in, exhaling loudly in happiness to be blasted by cool air conditioning. “Sorry, I just wanted to look at the stars and got carried away.”
Iwaizumi peers over his shoulder, frowning. “Like you can see stars in Tokyo.”
“You only need to look into my eyes, Iwa-cha-- nnfh!!” Oikawa clutches his stomach where Iwaizumi has playfully punched him, dramatically teetering into his arms. Iwaizumi calmly catches him and they’re suddenly embracing. There’s a lot of solid muscle he’s leaning on right now and Oikawa doesn’t try to mask the way he slides his palm across Iwaizumi’s chest, practically lying on him while standing.
“You are so freaking shitty, Shittykawa,” Iwaizumi bites, but he doesn’t move him, doesn’t tell him to fuck off, doesn’t do anything but look into his eyes in quick snatches, cheeks a rosy pink. He clears his throat. “You know...”
Oh god, this is it, Oikawa thinks, chest tightening with excitement. Because he’s wanted this for his entire life, all the years he can even remember being alive, always attached to Iwaizumi’s side. If it took a fairy to grant him this wish rather than Iwaizumi offering it up himself, so be it.
Iwaizumi seems to chew around his words, hands unconsciously squeezing Oikawa tighter against his body. It’s definitely not platonic to stand in your living room with your best friend and hug him around the waist for entire minutes at a time. Oikawa’s fingertips trailing across Iwaizumi’s collarbone to curl a hand around his shoulder, all the while breathing within centimeters of his face is definitely, definitely not platonic.
“You seriously drive me crazy,” Iwaizumi says, all in an exasperated sigh. Oikawa blinks. “You’re like when I’m halfway to work already and then I start getting paranoid about whether or not I turned the stove off.” He lets Oikawa go, familiar crease settled deep between his eyebrows. “You’re like putting out all the nice, clean laundry in the morning only to have a surprise thunderstorm roll in at noon and I’m thinking all afternoon about how the clean laundry needs to be rewashed.”
“What does that even mean,” Oikawa demands, prodding Iwaizumi repeatedly in the shoulder. “That just makes me sound inconvenient and annoying!”
“You are inconvenient and annoying!”
“What!!” Oikawa whines, grabbing a hold of Iwaizumi’s right arm to hug it, trademark puppy dog pout on his face already. “You don’t mean that, right?”
“I genuinely really do,” Iwaizumi says, rolling his eyes, “plus, you are really super shitty, like something that is really super...” He chances another look at Oikawa’s face, immediately looking away when his breath catches. “...shitty,” he finishes brilliantly, and manages a whole second of composure before he starts to grin as Oikawa bursts out laughing.
“Oh god, my Iwa-chan is a total dunce,” Oikawa wheezes, clutching onto him from support. Hilarious. Iwaizumi is so dumb. Oikawa is in love with an idiot. What a wonderful, generous, adorable idiot.
“Your Iwa-chan is still smarter than you,” Iwaizumi replies smartly, tugging fondly on a lock of Oikawa’s hair. He pushes him away after though, heading for the kitchen. He knows there’s surprise and delight on Oikawa’s face right now; that’s why he refuses to let himself see it. “Go take a bath before the water gets cold. And for the love of god, don’t sing so loud that our neighbor complains again, alright?”
Oikawa says nothing, just beams after Iwaizumi’s back, shyly twisting his hands together. It’s not the first time he’s called Iwaizumi his, but this may really be the first time that Iwaizumi has admitted to it himself for Oikawa to hear.
---
To Oikawa’s eternal frustration, the next three days are too busy for them to spend much time together. He calls Iwaizumi twice over lunch, getting to enjoy another homemade bento that his co-star absolutely gushes to death over. He’s got a pretty big shoot going this week, filming in various locations all over Tokyo for a handful of energy drink commercials. He’s lucky and grateful to get the endorsements he does to keep his Olympics funding rolling in, but it really does eat into any regular scheduling he could have to talk with Iwaizumi.
“Don’t pout so much,” Kaori admonishes, stealing another cherry tomato out of his bento. Oikawa stabs into a piece of steak from her catered bento in retaliation. “Didn’t you say you’ve been together for over ten years?? How could you still be so needy after dating for so long?”
Well...that’s not technically a lie, even if it isn’t really the truth. “Iwa-chan is important to me,” he hisses, “and keep your voice down! I don’t want Iwa-chan’s life to get complicated if any of the crazy fans find out.”
“Ugh, I envy you for having someone who loves you,” Kaori groans, perfectly pink and glossy lips jutting out in a cute pout. She’s a stunner, really cute, too, a veteran in the modeling and TV personality world. She’s good to Oikawa, always great at keeping secrets and being kind whenever they do run into each other for gigs, though Oikawa suspects it’s because she likes to live vicariously through him by hearing his gushy stories about Iwaizumi.
“I just feel like...Iwa-chan’s been meaning to say something to me recently,” Oikawa whispers, excitement obvious in his voice. He sincerely hopes Fairy-chan’s magic comes to full fruition. “We keep talking in circles and there’s just something, you know?”
“Oh my gosh,” Kaori gasps, “do you think she wants to get married?”
“Um, no, not like that,” Oikawa answers uncomfortably, and then moans and drops his face in his hands. Great. As if he didn’t have lofty enough dreams already, now he’s thinking about marriage. “Kaorin, I can’t think about this anymore. Let’s just eat in silence.”
“Ugggghhh,” she groans at him, making gagging noises, “Iwa-chan has to be the luckiest or unluckiest girl alive.”
As it turns out, Oikawa may be the luckiest and unluckiest of all people alive. He sends a text to Iwaizumi in the afternoon to tell him he won’t be home until late today, and though he means nothing by it as he goes through his usual complaints about being tired at work, he’s startled to silence when Iwaizumi suddenly shows up on set just a few minutes shy of midnight. He’s got giant cooler bags in both hands and Oikawa could just melt when he sees Iwaizumi passing the bags of cold drinks off to the staff, some unimaginable, inexplicable kindness that Oikawa could never understand or duplicate.
“Damn, who is that!” Kaori whispers, ogling Iwaizumi even as Iwaizumi walks toward them with two drinks in his hands. “Hi!” she greets cheerily, the charm cranked to a thousand, and Oikawa regrets nothing when he grabs Iwaizumi by the wrist and happily says, “Iwa-chan, you came!”
Kaori drops her tea bottle. She blinks, picks it up, then drops it again, laughing as all three of them bend to pick it up.
“So you’re the incredible Iwa-chan!” she says, giving Iwaizumi a once-over. Very male. Very, very handsome. Kaori arrives at full understanding.
“Actually, only I call him Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says, hoping his voice is on the right side of polite. He doesn’t want to sound possessive, he only needs her to understand.
“Iwaizumi Hajime,” Iwaizumi introduces properly, giving Kaori a short bow. “Oikawa is the only one who calls me Iwa-chan.”
“No worries, I know how it is,” Kaori says, winking at him. She doesn’t miss a beat with these things. “So, Iwaizumi-kun,” she sings, shooting Oikawa a look, “Oikawa-kun has been telling me so, so, so many amazing things about you.”
“Kaorin!!” Oikawa hisses, face flushing.
“Amazing good and not amazing bad, I hope?” Iwaizumi says, failing to hide how pleased he looks.
“Definitely good! Hey, have you been thinking about getting married lately?””
“What?” Iwaizumi asks, eyes darting to Oikawa. Oikawa is staring at Kaori though, face a light cherry and pinched with panic. “Um...no?” He ventures, wondering if Oikawa’s been saying extraneous stuff about him.
Iwaizumi is always careful not to interfere with Oikawa’s athletic career for the sake of volleyball, or his semi-celebrity status for endorsements, also for the eventual sake of volleyball. It means everything to Oikawa and Iwaizumi can’t let rumors and scandals get in the way. As hard as it is to keep quiet sometimes, Iwaizumi has made a promise to himself to always look out for Oikawa, even if that can sometimes be incredibly painful. Besides, there really isn’t anything explicitly going on between them, no matter how close they may sit together at home, no matter how long Oikawa looks at him sometimes, when he thinks Iwaizumi isn’t aware.
But it’s not like Kaori could know that, or the intricacies to his and Oikawa’s relationship.
“Iwa-chan’s too busy with work to think about marriage, right?” Oikawa suggests.
“Uh, yeah,” Iwaizumi says, giving Kaori a helpless shrug. “Who would I marry anyway, I’m single.”
The smile freezes on Kaori’s face. She laughs a little, then stops, baffled by the nervous confusion in Iwaizumi’s expression. He’s not joking.
Well, that’s not right. Friends don’t just show up at your workplace close to midnight after a long, hard day of work themselves just to pass out drinks to your coworkers. Friends don’t continue to live with you past the excuse of university or saving money and make you bentos for lunch just because they can. That’s so coupley, there isn’t any other word for it. And with the way Oikawa talks about Iwa-chan, Iwa-chan, Iwa-chan all the time, there’s no way something isn’t going on.
She looks at Oikawa in question, something ice cold dropping into her stomach when she sees the drawn, miserable smile Oikawa has hanging off his mouth, eyes uncharacteristically glued to the floor. The grip he has on Iwaizumi’s wrist loosens, and then he lets go, wielding indifference like a shield as he goes to help the staff with drinks.
“Okay...” she says faintly, watching Iwaizumi watch him go. “Then...what brings you to set today, Iwaizumi-kun?”
“Ah, yeah,” he says, hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck. It’s embarrassment or discomfort, likely both. Kaori realizes she suddenly doesn’t understand, not the way Oikawa had led her to. “He sounded like he was lonely, I guess. Has he been doing okay?”
I used to think so, until now, she thinks, but instead she smiles, brightness turned even higher. “I think he’s just a bit lovesick. Artistic souls, you know?”
“Lovesick,” Iwaizumi repeats, looking in Oikawa’s direction again.
It’s not even a question, Kaori realizes.
---
Oikawa has thought long and hard about what it is that keeps him so possessive of Iwaizumi, unable to let him go.
In youth, he was obsessed with his best friend for being his best friend, the familiarity of being childhood friends just too comfortable to want anything else. In his hormonal years as a teenager, Iwaizumi was literally the most attractive person Oikawa has ever been in the company of, and he’s been in the company of some pretty sexy people. There was reliance and trust and support already built in from years and years of friendship, and because that only grew stronger, Oikawa had even less reason to want to seek out change. He’s weathered Kageyama and Ushiwaka and crushing defeat where he never saw it coming, and still, he came out whole on the other side, Iwaizumi infallibly there to make sure he takes another step forward.
Now, as an adult, past convenience of circumstance and the haze of hormonal lust, exactly none of his feelings have worn off. And oh, he’s been dragging them with him for decades, that impossibly heavy but incredibly warm weight in his chest, and it’s never gotten any lighter.
Iwaizumi is a different sort of wonder in Oikawa’s life, blunt force trauma to the heart. As the years have passed, his dedication to being with Iwaizumi has only grown firmer. He’s well aware that Iwaizumi must feel similarly, it’s the only explanation for the dynamics that they have, but Oikawa is too much of a coward to push further than he already does. He’s too scared to lose what they have now, especially since Iwaizumi has never expressed wanting for things to change.
So Oikawa carries the weight on his own, and tries not to read too much into Iwaizumi telling Kaori that he’s single. It’s true, even if Oikawa is the one that always tells that to other people, never Iwaizumi himself.
Oh, who is he kidding? Reading into everything Iwaizumi does is simultaneously Oikawa’s favorite hobby and most destructive bad habit.
With a miserable groan, Oikawa buries his face in his pillow, exhausted but unable to sleep. Looks like his second wish with Fairy-chan hadn’t worked the way he wanted. Iwaizumi has said some odd stuff to him these past few days, sure, and called him shitty even more than usual, but none of it was what Oikawa had really hoped for.
A knock on the door makes him sit up. “Come in,” he says, hugging a pillow to his chest as he crosses his legs on his bed, scooting over to make room.
“Hey,” Iwaizumi says, rubbing the back of his head as he sits. “You okay?”
Oikawa shrugs, looking down at his bedsheets. “Just tired. It’s almost 2am, don’t you want to sleep?”
“Yeah, I will. I just wanted to make sure you were okay. You were kind of quiet on the way home.”
Well, yeah, Oikawa wants to say. I was thinking about you. What else is new?
“Iwa-chan,” Oikawa says quietly, squeezing the pillow tighter to his body. “Don’t you ever think about finding a girlfriend?” And that’s not what he really wants to say, but Oikawa wants to be much closer to Iwaizumi or just very, very far away, and he can’t see any other way to broach the topic.
Iwaizumi frowns instinctively, trying to read between the lines. They haven’t had a conversation like this since their second year of university, actually, because that had been the very last time Oikawa had had a girlfriend. There have never been any boundaries explicitly set between them but Iwaizumi has never felt chronically single despite technically choosing to be so, and he appreciated that Oikawa never brought up the topic of girlfriends with him again after his very last breakup. It’s been a good five years and Iwaizumi has been pretty happy within them.
“I don’t, actually,” he answers. “Why?”
“Well...are you really okay with just being like this? Don’t you eventually want to get married one day?”
Iwaizumi arches both eyebrows, taken aback. They’ve never even talked about marriage before. “Eventually, sure,” he says slowly, “why are you asking about that stuff now, though?”
“I didn’t think talking to me would be an inconvenience,” Oikawa says, venomous and bitter. “Sorry,” he tacks on immediately, looking away, not wanting to see Iwaizumi’s face anymore. “All I wanted was to know how you feel about...everything.”
They’re too codependent. They’re too comfortable. Oikawa could live like this with Iwaizumi for a good number of years to come, but it probably won’t ever change unless one of them does something very out of the ordinary. Iwaizumi probably won’t ever go out to look for a girlfriend, so Oikawa’s going to be the one that has to change things.
“Oikawa, what’s really going on?” Iwaizumi asks, reaching out to squeeze Oikawa’s knee.
“What do you think about me?” Oikawa returns gently, giving Iwaizumi a small smile.
“What’s with that?” Iwaizumi says with a laugh, “I think you’re a pain in my ass, but you’re pretty great.”
Oikawa closes his eyes, bracing himself against the wave of dread edging onto the shores of his mind. “Yeah, you’re pretty great, too.”
---
“Hey, you okay?” Fairy-chan asks, sitting on Oikawa’s chest.
“You’re the second person to ask me that since I’ve gotten home,” Oikawa says quietly to his dark ceiling, too sapped of willpower to put any inflection into his voice. “I must not be doing so hot.”
It took all his strength just to keep it together until Iwaizumi left his room. He never knew that heartache could come in such compact size, condensed to a smile, a private goodbye, a squeeze to the knee.
Oikawa will never not want Iwaizumi in his life but he needs distance if they can’t clear up what they have now. Because even with distance in miles and years, he knows Iwaizumi will still be a thought that he holds onto to visit every day, someone he used to know, an old injury borne of a long and losing fight for glory.
If things are good, they’re great, and if they’re not, then they’re lessons. Oikawa will just have to accept he still has a lot to learn.
“You have your third wish ready, right?” she asks him, fluttering her wings anxiously. Oikawa isn’t someone she knows well but she knows enough of him to understand what he wants. That’s her entire job description. “You know...if you’re really this upset, you wouldn’t be the first or even the billionth person to wish for someone to be in love with you. That really is the easiest way.”
“I figured,” Oikawa says, and it’s not like the temptation isn’t nearly overwhelming. “But what would be the point?” he asks, throwing an arm over his eyes, “Does something like that mean anything if it isn’t freely given?”
Fairy-chan walks over to his face and gives his cheek a hug. “Look at that, not as stupid as you look.”
Oikawa finally cracks a smile, peeking over at her. “Those couples that get together because you granted their wishes...are they actually happy?”
“For a while, yeah. But actually, it’s usually the person who made the wish that breaks it off. They eventually arrive at the same conclusion you just did. How real is it if it’s forced? Does it mean anything at all?” Fairy-chan hops back onto his chest, shooting Oikawa’s digital clock a quick look. Nearly 3:30am. “You should get some sleep soon. I don’t think I’m supposed to do this, but I want you to look at something.”
She sets her hands on his chest, cupped together. Oikawa watches as pieces of paper suddenly poof into existence, crumpled and colorful, unmistakable strips of tanzaku paper for writing Tanabata wishes on.
“I went through the old archives and found a few of Iwaizumi-kun’s wishes over the years. Figured I would show you, just in case you were going to make a bad decision tonight.” Fairy-chan smiles at him, sheepish and pitying. “Sorry, Tooru-chan. I really don’t like it when people try to wish for love not meant for them. That one’s above my pay grade in the first place, I think that’s why it never works out in the end when I try to change it.”
Oikawa silently picks up a strip of faded blue, then green, then yellow, then pink. He can’t help that his eyes start to sting to see Iwaizumi’s wishes over the years, his handwriting barely even improving over the span of decades.
I hope we beat Ushijima next time.
May we have a lot more summers together.
I hope we never get too far from each other, even in university.
Please let me be there to see him win gold.
“This is the most recent,” she says, handing over a white piece. “He’s been making the same wish for the past four years.”
Oikawa reads it, then laughs, because it is just Iwaizumi in every way he knows him. Strong, stubborn, nearly childlike in his earnestness and honesty.
May our new year together be as great as our last.
“Thanks, Fairy-chan,” he whispers, carefully pushing the papers back to her. It seems almost like an invasion of Iwaizumi’s privacy to have seen all of these wishes, so earnestly made for Oikawa’s sake and only incidentally for himself. “Do you know how many of these were granted for him?”
“None,” she says, grinning at him, “everything that’s worked out so far, Iwaizumi-kun made it happen himself.”
Oikawa stares at her in surprise, then grins back, sighing as his head hits the pillow. “That is just so Iwa-chan,” he says, and gathers himself, all the mindlessly scattered parts that he’s been too lazy to hold together. Looks like he’s got one more reason to go after gold at the Olympics now. He wants all of Iwaizumi’s wishes to come true.
“Ready?” she asks, lifting her hands.
Oikawa nods, choosing to be brave. “I wish for Iwa-chan’s happiness, whatever shape that may come in.”
---
Oikawa wakes to the feeling of Iwaizumi’s fingers carding through his hair. He curls up tighter, a hoarse hum in his throat, somehow more content than he has been in years despite the heaviness in his heart.
“Morning,” Iwaizumi says, voice hushed. When did his cranky, abrasive Iwa-chan become so willingly gentle? “Are you feeling any better this morning?”
Oikawa shifts to sleepily look up at him, nodding. Iwaizumi smiles and starts to pull away but Oikawa catches him around the wrist, holding him still a bit longer. Much better, just hungry, he thinks, is set on saying, but they both freeze when the words that come spilling out of his mouth are “I love you, Iwa-chan.”
Well, fuck?
I need to go pee, Oikawa tries to say, needing to get away before his face catches fire, but what comes out is “I lo--” before he snaps his own mouth shut, biting hard onto his lower lip.
In the middle of his horror and to his pleasant surprise, Iwaizumi’s entire face lights up, just brightens, a suppressed grin pulling at the corners of his mouth with what appears to be undeniable strength. He looks so hopeful that for a moment, Oikawa can’t remember what he was worried about at all. When was the last time he saw Iwaizumi so happy?
Then, something shifts in Iwaizumi’s expression, and he seems to shake himself out of it, all of that brightness. “Stupid, I know,” he says, averting his eyes. Oikawa doesn’t understand the sag to his shoulders, like he’s given up. “We’ve been best friends too long for me to not know that.”
“Wait!” Oikawa says quickly, relieved he can finally say what he wants. That earlier compulsion was crazy; was that Fairy-chan’s magic working on him? Was that what makes Iwaizumi happy!? “Shit, what are you talking about, what are we even talking about right now?” he breathes, overwhelmed to the point of shaking, grabbing onto Iwaizumi’s shoulder. “Just forget about everything for a second, forget that we’re best friends or being embarrassed about how long we’ve known each other. If I were a stranger at a bar, and you saw me, and maybe that would be the only chance we’d ever have, what would you do right now? What would you really say?”
Iwaizumi gives him a crooked, helpless smile, such naked, undressed confession. “Stupid. Like I would ever have the nerve to talk to someone so out of my league.”
Oikawa bursts out laughing, something tight in his chest unexpectedly winding even tighter at how sweet Iwaizumi really is. He laughs and laughs until Iwaizumi is drawing him into an embrace, a hand back in his hair, soothing and telling him not to cry.
“You’re so stupid,” Oikawa accuses, half-angry and wholly overwhelmed as he fists his hands into the back of Iwaizumi’s shirt, “don’t act like you don’t know what I really mean.”
“I don’t want to get in your way,” Iwaizumi explains quietly, “you still have so much ahead of--”
“Your stupidity is getting in my way,” Oikawa hisses, wiping his eyes with the back of his forearm. Ugh, gross. He takes a shaking breath and sits back with an authoritative frown, deciding that he needs to take up the title of captain again if Iwaizumi is going to get this lost. “Iwa-chan, you know, right? Ive- I’ve been in love with you for so long, you’ve always known that, right?”
He’s a bit miffed by how bewildered Iwaizumi looks, full-on staring at him like he’s just declared undying devotion to Ushiwaka. Damn, that’s rude! Him being in love with Iwaizumi shouldn’t be a new concept whatsoever.
“This is just so weird,” Iwaizumi admits, “not- not what you’re saying, just that this is happening.” He awkwardly clears his throat, face flushing red as he reaches for Oikawa’s hand, lacing their fingers together. “Last night, I had this weird dream. This fairy flew out from my closet and told me she’d grant my wish if I told her what would make me happy, and I basically told her exactly what you just said. Isn’t that crazy?”
“Oh shit,” Oikawa says, finally understanding. “She totally played me.”
“What??” Iwaizumi asks, really bewildered now.
“So...so you believe me, right?” Oikawa says, changing the subject. He just needs to make sure.
“Of course I believe you.” Iwaizumi finally cracks a real, hopeful smile, his eyes bright.
“Wait, I just want to reiterate,” Oikawa says, brain still playing catch-up. He pushes himself forward, crawling into Iwaizumi’s lap, surprised at his own boldness. Iwaizumi looks as taken aback as he feels but he’s also smiling, looking up at him with such thorough fondness, Oikawa could smother himself in it. “Let me get this straight,” he says again, softer, “a fairy told you you could have anything you wanted to be happy, and you asked for a confession?”
Iwaizumi shrugs, cheeks a dark pink. Oikawa cups them, wanting to feel that warmth. “Well, I always figured I already had you,” he confesses, “I’m happy that we get to be together. I was just going to hold off on saying anything more until I wouldn’t get in the way of anything you wanted to do.”
“You’re everything I want to do, idiot.”
Iwaizumi laughs, happy and bright, and Oikawa can’t think of a better time to kiss him.
---
“So...did you actually use any magic to grant any of my wishes?” Oikawa asks suspiciously, poking Fairy-chan in the head. It’s nearing five in the morning since his birthday celebration ran rather late and he’s glad that Iwaizumi is already asleep so he can get a chance to sneak off onto the balcony.
“I got you to finally spit it out, didn’t I?” she replies defensively, batting at his finger in annoyance. “Your first two wishes were so stupid anyway, I mean, why would you wish for stuff you already have?”
“What?” Oikawa blinks at her, flushing in embarrassment as her eyes drag down his naked torso, assessing his rather vivid state of undress. “What do you mean?”
“I mean,” she spells out, as if speaking to a particularly stupid child, “you wished for him to think of you all the time, but you’re all he thinks about anyway. And then you wished for him to tell you how he feels about you, even though he tries to show you all the time the best way he knows how. He even makes you lunch when he has a spare minute in the mornings, Tooru-chan! My mother doesn’t even do that anymore! Even if I did use my magic, what could I have changed to make it better than the way he already had it?”
Oikawa closes his eyes and laughs quietly to himself, on the verge of overwhelmed again. A whole lot has become clear in the last two weeks and it seems impossible that he hadn’t clued into the last five years of his own life faster.
“I guess Iwa-chan really does make it all happen himself,” Oikawa says, mostly to himself. “Thank you for helping me with so much, Fairy-chan.”
“You’re welcome! I guess I was kind of fond of you guys and Iwaizumi-kun did 99% of the work, anyway.” She gives Oikawa a happy birthday kiss on the nose, grinning at him. “You’re very lucky to have him,” she says, and it isn’t anything Oikawa doesn’t already know.
---
Iwaizumi wakes suddenly before dawn to find himself alone and he’s not so happy about it. He’s already half out of bed when Oikawa returns, gently shoving him back into it.
“Where did you go?” he mumbles, humming pleasantly into Oikawa’s mouth as Oikawa decides to kiss him in answer.
“Missed me in your sleep, did you?” Oikawa teases, pressing wet, open-mouthed kisses down the side of Iwaizumi’s neck. He delights in the throaty moan that he receives as he goes lower, teeth scraping over a collarbone, his mouth kissing noisily down the ripple of Iwaizumi’s abs.
Just as he’s about to get himself really excited, Iwaizumi grabs him and flips them with ease, and Oikawa finds himself staring up into dark, bright eyes, the last traces of sleep fading. Iwaizumi gives him a slow, knowing smile, running a hand up his shoulder and neck and into his hair. He grabs a handful and twists, bares Oikawa’s neck to sink his teeth into, short of leaving a mark, soothing the bite with the heat of his tongue. Oikawa arches and stutters out a moan, digging his nails into Iwaizumi’s lower back to press him in closer.
“You sure you can handle more?” Iwaizumi breathes into his ear, and the heat of it makes Oikawa shudder. He whines in embarrassment and confirmation, tightening his thighs around Iwaizumi’s waist. “I’m going to bend you over the table before breakfast,” Iwaizumi says, all heat and gravel, and Oikawa can’t stop himself moaning as Iwaizumi settles between his legs, “so I really hope you can handle it.”
Well, Oikawa’s not sure of anything, he can’t think. But what is he really going to do, stop?
---
Iwaizumi usually isn’t out this late on a weeknight considering his work schedule, but Oikawa’s been away at shoots so often this past week that they haven’t had a lot of time to spend together.
He’s happy to visit sets anyway; it’s good to bring snacks for the staff and get to know people, because they tend to do him a solid by giving him the digital files for Oikawa’s photos. It’s also extremely gratifying to see Oikawa light up with that million-watt smile whenever Iwaizumi shows up, and it’s hilarious that he likes to think himself subtle.
“Nice to see you again, Iwaizumi-kun.”
“Nice to see you too, Kaori-san. Thank you for taking care of Oikawa as always.”
She grins, elbowing him knowingly, getting up in his space just to see the way Oikawa’s eyebrows knit together. He’s watching them like a hawk from across the room. “Everything’s been going well with Oikawa-kun, I see? He’s been floating on cloud nine for weeks!”
“I suppose they are,” Iwaizumi says, grinning back.
“So, sooo?” she fishes, “have you been thinking about getting married lately?”
Iwaizumi has no reason to lie anymore, to her or to himself. “Sure have, Kaori-san.”
She snickers at him, having fully expected that answer. “You sure do love him a lot, don’t you?”
“Sure do, Kaori-san.”
She laughs in delight and pats his hand, jumping away once she sees the way Oikawa is beelining right for them despite being in the middle of getting his makeup redone. “That’s my cue to go! Relax on the hickeys though, eh? The makeup artists can only do so much.”
“Iwa-chan!! Why didn’t you come say hi to me sooner?” Oikawa is whining, and she laughs out loud when she hears Iwaizumi smack him for being so annoying.
---
It’s another blazingly hot summer and this year’s Tanabata wishes also come flying in at breakneck speed. Although they’re not necessarily supposed to be tracking specific people to grant wishes, Fairy-chan can’t help that she happens to conveniently come across Oikawa’s file, curious about what he’s decided to wish for in his 26th year of life.
She reads the small slip of paper, laughing at the simple, yet very Oikawa wish.
I hope he says yes.
“Idiot,” she says, tucking his file back into the archives, “always wishing for stuff he already has.”
---