Work Text:
"Oikawa-senpai, I like you, please go out with me!"
This is the second confession this week, and it's only Wednesday.
Tooru studies the girl in front of him, even as she bows at the waist and squeezes her eyes shut, a red blush painted on her face. She's cute, with short, black hair and brown eyes.
"I'm sorry, Harumi-chan, but I like someone else."
Tears well up in her eyes immediately, and Tooru wordlessly pulls out his handkerchief from his pocket to offer the girl. She takes it with a soft Thank you that stutters into a sob as she turns away from him, pressing the cloth to her eyes. Tooru lets his gaze drift past her to look beyond the outer walls of the gym. He doesn’t think she would want him to see her red-faced and crying.
A couple catches his eye, sitting under a tree and having lunch. The girl feeds her boyfriend a piece of rolled egg from her own bento, and he presses a shy kiss to her cheek in thanks. They both go red after that, and refuse to look at each other. It’s so innocently sweet and affectionate that Tooru thinks he might get a cavity from their interaction.
Everyone seems to be falling in love lately.
One of Tooru’s classmates has just gotten a girlfriend, and he can’t stop gushing about her to anyone willing to listen. Takamura-kun’s topic of choice today is how pretty his girlfriend’s eyes are. Everyone in his class is already sick of the boy’s love-struck babbling, and no one wants to put themselves out as a target. Tooru’s curious though, so he volunteers himself as sacrifice.
The boy lights up at someone willing to listen, and he immediately goes off on a tangent about how her eyes sparkle the prettiest in the sunset. Tooru doesn’t say anything and sips at his orange juice, nodding every now and then to show that he’s still listening. He’s not really paying attention to what Takamura-kun’s saying honestly, more interested in observing how the boy gets so animated when talking about his love. It’s fascinating how love can make even a normally introverted boy like Takamura-kun talk so much to anyone and everyone.
Takamura-kun flings his arms to emphasise something, and smacks one of their classmates in the back of her head. She shoots an annoyed glare at him but he’s too drunk on his adoration for it to put a damper on his speech. Tooru doesn’t think he’s seen anyone this animated when talking about another person before. It must be due to love, he thinks, and raises an eyebrow when grape soda spills over the lip of the can in one of Takamura-kun’s more vigorous movements.
Takamura-kun cuts himself off midsentence, and Tooru blinks in confusion as the other boy stares intently out the window into the hallway where a girl is passing by. Takamura-kun shoots out of his seat in the next second, barely remembering to throw back a, “I’ve got to go, my girlfriend’s just walked by. Sorry, Oikawa-kun!” before he vanishes through the doors, trailing her like a puppy.
Left by himself, Tooru sucks hard on the straw to get the last bits of juice from the carton, watching the cardboard cave in. Takamura’s girlfriend does have pretty eyes, from what he’d glimpsed of her in the few moments she walked by to see if Takamura was exaggerating. They’re a dark shade of green, maybe hazel. Tooru doesn’t think that they’re the prettiest though, he’s seen a few pairs of green eyes prettier than hers. Iwa-chan’s is the first to come to mind, because they’re the most familiar to Tooru, and the shade of green catches the light better.
Speaking of the devil, Tooru sees a familiar mop of bushy hair walking past his classroom and springs up from his chair, throwing the emptied carton into a wastebasket as he hurries to catch up to Iwa-chan. Iwa-chan cuffs him on the head for surprising him, and Tooru mock-whines in pain, Takamura-kun and his green-eyed girlfriend completely gone from his mind.
It isn’t until two weeks later when Takamura-kun comes into class sullen and upset that Tooru learns he’s broken up with his girlfriend because they were incompatible together.
Love is confusing, Tooru thinks. Having a best friend like Iwa-chan is enough for him, he doesn’t see the need for a girlfriend who’d leave him in a few weeks.
Everybody really is falling in love.
From the girl’s expression as she talks to Iwa-chan, Tooru can tell she’s gone for him, eyes bright and cheeks dusted pink. She shyly tucks a lock of hair behind her ear, peering up at Iwa-chan from between her lashes. Iwa-chan doesn’t seem to notice, dense as he is, and he continues talking obliviously. She must have said something funny, because Iwa-chan chuckles the next second, and her face flushes even more red. Tooru bites off a large chunk of fish with more force than necessary.
Suddenly a dull pain shoots through his chest, and Tooru brings a hand to clutch at his chest in confusion, frowning slightly. He must have eaten a fish bone and it’s poking his gullet, it’s not the first time it’s happened. He turns towards his desk and gulps down water, the pain thankfully subsiding. He sullenly puts down his chopsticks; he’s not too hungry anymore. Instead, he picks at a small chunk of fish that fell onto the table, pulling apart the meat fibers until it’s a disgusting lump of mushed fish before he picks up a piece of tissue paper and cleans it up.
He almost misses the look Makki shoots Mattsun just then from where they’re seated across from him; it’s a subtle look, a ‘Do you see what I’m seeing?’. He decides not to ask, because the meme team is probably planning something horrible again, and he doesn’t want to know what. Tooru sees Iwa-chan raising a hand to run it through his hair, and recalls something funny that Iwa-chan did once when they were in their first year of middle school.
He turns to Makki and Mattsun with an, Oh! Did you know… as he regales them with the tale of Iwa-chan’s horrendously failed impression of a boy band member during a class-wide game of charades.
He doesn’t miss the second look they share either, but when he questions them on it, they brush him off and tells him to continue with what he’s saying. He does, but only because it’s a hilarious story that they absolutely needed to hear.
He’s not expecting the fist that knocks heavily against his skull when Iwa-chan scowls at him in embarrassment and tells him to shut up.
One afternoon, Tooru is called outside by a girl and he’s already expecting it to be a confession. What he doesn’t expect though, is for it to be the girl that was crushing on Iwa-chan.
“Hey~ Mari-chan is it? What do you need me for?” Tooru asks, flashing a bright smile at her, although it seemed more difficult today to get his lips to tilt upwards for some reason.
“Oikawa-kun, um, you’re best friends with Iwaizumi-kun right?” Mari says softly, eyes cast downwards and faint blush on her cheeks. She twists her fingers into the hem of her skirt, “I was wondering if you could, uh, tell me what his f-favourite food is?”
Tooru raises an eyebrow, before an unreadable smile plays on his lips, “Oh, do you happen to like Iwa-chan?”
Mari nods hesitantly, face flaming red by now and hair swinging down to cover her face. She’s cute, like a real Yamato Nadeshiko with her pale skin, soft-spoken temperament and long black hair. Iwa-chan would like her, and for a moment Tooru feels something like jealousy grab his heart. It’s probably because Iwa-chan has a pretty girl like her crushing on him. After all, Tooru’s type is also black hair, although she’s too quiet for his liking. He thinks he would much rather have someone who would banter with him rather than act demure.
“Hm~” he says instead, folding his arms and assessing her with half-lidded eyes, “no problem.”
Leaning closer, he raises up a hand and mock-whispers, “Iwa-chan likes agedashi tofu the most. Remember that carefully, okay?”
Her eyes light up in gratitude and she bows deeply to him, thanks spilling from her lips. He waves her off with a cheerful grin other hand sliding into a pocket, staring at her retreating back until she disappears into her classroom before turning away. His fist clenches from where it’s hidden, tucked into his pocket, and the grin falls away from his face. There’s a suffocating feeling in his chest, and he thinks he might choke from it. Strangely, it feels like anger.
This is terrible, he bemoans in his head, absolutely dreadful.
Not only did the school nurse tell him that he’d have to miss practice – “Oikawa-kun, you have a high fever. There is no way I am allowing you to go to practice.” – he’d have to miss his and Iwa-chan’s customary after-practice dinner. It was tradition! They hadn’t broken that routine in years.
He sighs, and is knocked on the forehead with a pen by the nurse, who’s looking mildly annoyed now after she probably discovered he hadn’t been listening to a word she was saying. In a chiding tone, she commands him to lie down on the infirmary bed and rest until lunch before going home. The school nurse slightly terrifies Tooru, so he promptly does as she says, lying on the bed quiet as a mouse until restless sleep takes him. It doesn’t take long with the combined effect from the fever medicine and his muddled head.
When he wakes up, his bag’s lying by the bed and there are two new messages in his phone.
Makki: we dropped off ur stuff for u. gws captain, we’re counting on u to treat us to ramen as repayment
Iwa-chan: I told you not to go jogging in the rain but nooooo, you wouldn’t listen. You better make sure you rest when you go home or I’ll knock you out myself.
He huffs an exasperated but fond laugh, but quickly taps out two short replies to the displeasure of the nurse, who stares at him sternly. Her gazed seemed to convey her desire for him to text later. When he slides the phone into his pocket, she stands up with a thermometer in her hand and takes his temperature one more time. The medicine caused his fever to subside, and she deems him clear-headed enough to make him way home, so she hurries him out of the infirmary with exonerations of no detours and go to sleep straight away when you reach home. He thanks her and makes his way down the corridor, eager to be away from her eagle eyes.
And he really did plan to follow her orders, but a familiar mop of black hair catches his eye when he walks across the courtyard, and he sees Iwa-chan with Mari, standing behind a tree. Iwa-chan’s water bottle is left on a bench nearby along with Hanamaki and Matsukawa’s bentos – though the latter two weren’t around, probably why the girl chose now to talk to Iwa-chan.
Iwa-chan looks relaxed but curious, hands tucked in his pocket and a questioning smile on his face, while Mari, cheeks tinted pink, fiddles with something behind her back. As Tooru watches, trying not to seem like a creep as he conceals himself behind another tree nearby, he can faintly make out their words.
“Um, Iwaizumi-kun, I heard- I heard that agedashi tofu was your favourite food so- please accept this! I would like to be able to make lunch for you in the future as well!”
She presents the thing she had been hiding behind her back, a small bento wrapped in a cute, bear patterned cloth and bows her head, trembling slightly from what had obviously just been a confession. Iwa-chan’s face turns red instantly, and he awkwardly says his thanks, hand coming up to scratch at his neck in embarrassment. They make a cute couple, and normally Tooru would be thrilled at having something to tease Iwaizumi about.
This time though, a nauseating feeling rises up the back of his throat until he thinks he might be sick. His eyes burn for some reason, and he grips his bag tighter, turning and making his way to the school gates at a fast pace. Better get home quickly before his fever comes back again, like he thinks it probably will if his body’s inopportune reaction was any indication. All possible thoughts of teasing had never even crossed his mind.
With how fast he left, he was already out of earshot by the time Iwaizumi replied, and if he’d turned around he would have seen Iwaizumi gently pushing the box back towards the girl.
“Thank you, Suzuki-san, but I’m afraid I can’t accept this. Besides, I already have someone I like.”
He bows lightly to her, and leaves. She stands there for a moment, stunned, before tears spring to her eyes and she sprints off into the opposite direction.
Iwaizumi doesn’t notice, too busy staring at what seemed to be Oikawa disappearing past the school gates, but the figure’s gone too fast for him to really be sure. It probably wasn’t him, considering how his bottle was placed in such an obvious location that Oikawa would definitely have seen it, and even if he were sick and not himself, he wouldn’t give up the opportunity to bother Iwaizumi.
Iwaizumi sits back down on the stone bench and takes a swig of water, just as Hanamaki and Matsukawa return with arms laden with sandwiches.
Tooru goes to the park to practice his serves.
It’s not the smartest thing he’s done, and certainly not the rest he’s supposed to be having, but it’s easy and it clears his mind. He doesn’t have to think about anything besides the smack of the volleyball against his palm and the heavy thump as it impacts the concrete floor of the court.
The collar of his tracksuit feels way too hot, and he raises his arm to wipe at the sweat dripping down the side of his face. By the light of the sky, he’s probably been here for a few hours already, and the sun’s almost past the horizon line. Tooru picks up the volleyball, scuffed from years of use, and brushes his finger over the shaky Oikawa Tooru scribbled on its surface in permanent marker. Iwa-chan got this volleyball for him, back when they were seven. It’s been his favourite ever since, even if he has three others tucked away somewhere in his room.
One more time, and then I’ll go back, he thinks. Tooru tosses the ball in the air, winds himself up for a jump, and suddenly feels a wave of weakness wash over his body. A white fog covers his vision, and he drops to his knees in sudden exhaustion, the volleyball landing on the ground with a faint thwack.
I had that coming, he thinks to himself, probably should have rested like the nurse told me to. The white in his vision is turning black now, and he thinks someone is calling his name, but it might just be the fever talking. The instance before Tooru’s face has an intimate meeting with the ground, a pair of arms catches him and pulls him into their owner’s embrace. Something about the arms seems familiar, but by this time he’s barely even conscious, so he doesn’t really have the spare energy to think about such stuff.
He turns his face into the mystery person’s chest and faints dead away.
When he opens his eyes again, Tooru is half-expecting himself to wake up in some random creep’s house as an unfortunate kidnapping victim. Thankfully, it’s the familiar ceiling light of his bedroom that meets his gaze first when he wakes up; then, it’s the pair of furious green eyes that enters his field of view.
“Finally awake?” Iwa-chan asks, in that tight voice he always uses when he’s angry but is forcing himself to stay calm. “Then let’s talk about why you were out practicing with a fever when you’re supposed to be at home, resting.”
He grips his hair in disbelieving bafflement, as if he can’t believe that Tooru was stupid enough to do that. Tooru wisely stays quiet, casting his gaze to the side as he attempts to push himself up. Iwaizumi’s hand pressing on his shoulder doesn’t let him get more than a few centimetres up, and his sharp glare dissuades him from trying further.
“Imagine what I thought, when I came over to check on you, only to find your schoolbag here but you missing, and then imagine what I thought when I saw one of your volleyballs gone.” Iwaizumi growls out, thoroughly pissed.
“I was feeling bored…” Tooru says, because even if that’s not the whole truth at least it’s part of it and he can’t tell Iwa-chan that he couldn’t stop thinking about Mari’s confession and how painful it made him feel.
Iwaizumi levels him with a look, the one that says, I know you’re lying, now ‘fess up.
Tooru mulishly stays silent, turning onto his side to face the wall, but he can still feel Iwa-chan watching him with a steady gaze that always makes him feel like a small child being punished for stealing cookies from the cookie jar.
There’s silence for a few minutes, and when he feels Iwa-chan getting impatient, he sighs and confesses, quickly and in a quiet voice, “I was jealous when I saw you with Mari-chan.”
He hopes that Iwaizumi misses it, but his best friend’s always had supernaturally good hearing when it really matters so of course he catches it.
“You’re… jealous… of me and Suzuki-san?” He asks, haltingly, like’s he’s not sure he’s heard that right. “But why?”
“Well – I heard her confess to you and if you go out with her, you won’t have time to spend with me, your best friend, will you?” Tooru says, almost petulantly, “All your time’s gonna be used on your girlfriend.”
“I- wha- that’s-” Iwaizumi splutters, “so you decided to go to the park and practice until you collapsed?!”
Tooru flushes, because he really should have learnt from junior high but he wasn’t really in the right frame of mind. He buries his head in his blanket and doesn’t look up.
“Well that’s dumb.” Iwaizumi finally states. Tooru bristles, half in anger and half in embarrassment.
“You know, I rejected her.” He continues, and Tooru slowly turns to look at him. “I barely knew her, and I don’t really want a girlfriend right now.”
“Besides,” a warm hand drops onto Tooru’s head and ruffles his hair softly. “I already have my hands full with you, this big, jealous baby.”
Tooru feels his heart give out a really loud badump and he thinks, Oh. Oh no.
“Makki, Mattsun, this is an emergency!” Tooru blurts out as he drops himself onto the floor beside them. Iwa-chan’s helping his teacher with his class’s math papers so it’s just the three of them on the rooftop for lunch today.
Hanamaki stares at him with a flat gaze. Matsukawa doesn’t even bother looking up from his karaage. They radiated an aura of ‘An emergency. You? Really? Shocking.’
Ignoring their general air of disinterest Tooru trudges on. “I think I like Iwa-chan.”
“I win, pay up.” Hanamaki instantly turns to tell Matsukawa. Matsukawa grumbles but hands over a handful of notes.
“Wha- what? Why aren’t you guys surprised about this? A bet?!” Tooru screeches, because really, why weren’t they more surpised?
“Please, as if your pining for Iwaizumi wasn’t blatantly obvious.” Makki scoffs. Mattsun nods in agreement. The both of them cast him disdainful looks.
“Okay, first off, I’m not pining for him.” Tooru retorts instinctively, because that’s all he can do right now. “Secondly, what do you mean obvious?”
“Don’t think we haven’t caught you staring at vice-captain’s ass during training. You’re so smitten it’s painful.” Matsukawa sniffs in contempt. Hanamaki doesn’t bother replying, taking a big bite of his egg mayo sandwich. “You couldn’t be more possessive of him if you tried. Haven’t you noticed? You’re always so pissy whenever a girl talks to Iwaizumi.”
“I am not!” He says, affronted, but it’s not sincere. “I’ll have you know I-“
“Yeah, yeah.” Matsukawa says, interrupting his words. “What’s the problem?”
“What’s the problem–? Mattsun isn’t that obvious?” Tooru turns his words back on him, flailing his arms about.
Hanamaki picks up a slice of rolled egg from Tooru’s bento and shoves it into his mouth to stop his screeching. Tooru chokes, chewing on the egg while glaring angrily at him.
“Captain, O’ Captain.” Matsukawa sighs, pointing his chopsticks at Tooru to emphasise his next words. “You must be blind if you can’t see that Iwaizumi likes you back.”
“Wha- Iwa-chan-“
“Yes.” Hanamaki finally says. “He does.”
“It’s so – let me reiterate – obvious even the first years can see it. So please do us all a favour and get together already. I don’t think any of us can stand the two of you dancing around each other for much longer.”
“I didn’t…” Because Tooru doesn’t seem to be able to form complete sentences today, his words trickle off into thoughtful silence.
Hanamaki and Matsukawa looked at each other, the ‘Oh thank god he gets it!’ left unsaid between them as Tooru eats his lunch in contemplative silence, seemingly no longer interested in conversation.
The things they do for these two idiots.
To say he hadn’t felt nervous about botching up their friendship was a lie. That evening when he laid in his bed, sick and muddle-headed with the fever but also strangely more clear-headed than he had ever been, he had been slowly coming to terms with the sudden realisation that he might love Iwa-chan as more than a best friend should. Iwaizumi had carded a hand through Tooru’s hair in an unconscious, soothing action, trying to lull him back to sleep, all the while multitudes of confusing thoughts whirled inside Tooru with all the speed of a gale force hurricane.
However, Tooru was good at thinking. And so, when he reached home after that enlightening lunch, he thought.
He carefully considered their relationship, carefully considered Iwaizumi’s personality and how the confession would affect them if Iwaizumi didn’t like him.
Iwa-chan didn’t seem to like boys, but he didn’t show any interests in girls either, and he wasn’t against same-sex relationships.
Iwa-chan was his best friend of 10 years, and their friendship was rock-solid.
Iwa chan…
…
And the conclusion… wasn’t as bad as he thought.
At the very least, he didn’t think Iwa-chan would stop being friends with him. Sure, things might be awkward for a while but it probably wouldn’t ruin everything.
And that conclusion was what gave him the courage to pick up his phone and call Iwaizumi over.
To his credit, Iwa-chan didn’t think much of his sudden desire to hang out, grumbling a few words of token resistance about homework and tests before saying he’d be over in 15 minutes.
Tooru puts down his phone, and feels his heart race.
When Iwaizumi arrives, he pushes open Tooru’s door without knocking and plops himself down on the floor, tilting his head back to look at Tooru.
Tooru smiles and holds up a DVD case. “Want to watch Alien?”
“Hey, Iwa-chan.” Tooru begins, strangely at ease. He plays with the frayed thread sticking out of the edge of his blanket. The flickering light from the TV screen cast rippling shadows across his face.
“What?” Iwaizumi asks, eyes fixed the TV, though he does shoot a glance at Tooru.
“I like you.” He admits, and it comes out easier than he thought. “As in, like-like you.”
Iwaizumi goes still, and Tooru watches his face carefully while he processes those words. Finally, he pauses the movie and looks straight into Tooru’s eyes.
His lips quirk into a smile. “Took you long enough.”
Tooru puffs out a breath of laughter, suddenly feeling light inside. “What do you mean, ‘took you long enough’? I’ll have you know it took all of my courage to confess to you. Couldn’t you say something better?”
“Oh?” Iwaizumi’s eyes twinkle. “Like what?”
Tooru lets go of the poor thread and props his face with both hands. “How about something like, ‘I too, am infatuated with you, Oh Great Oikawa-san?’”
Iwaizumi snorts, shoving at Tooru’s face, but it’s gentle. Tooru yelps as he topples to the side, but it quickly turns into a soft giggle. Iwaizumi cups his cheeks in both hands, and smiles. “I like you too.”
Bending down, he plants a gentle kiss on Tooru’s lips. Tooru smiles back.
Well, maybe the whole world is in love, but he kinds of understands it now.