Chapter Text
It was the middle of the night and once again, Oikawa couldn't sleep.
At least he believed he had not slept all night, even though he was lying in his bed, cuddled up to Iwaizumi, without remembering how they got there. If he was waking up from anything, it wasn't sleep – it was the alcohol-induced black-out he had fallen into back at the IceBreaker.
Iwaizumi stirred in his arms, giving a displeased grunt.
“Stop breathing down my goddamned neck!”
“I can't just stop breathing!” Oikawa retorted, his voice barely audible. His throat was so dry, he felt like a cough would produce a ball of spiderwebs. The following whine made it out of his throat just fine, though. “Shit. Is there any water in your reach?”
Somehow, Iwaizumi produced a glass of water, which was ready on the nightstand, undoubtedly Ushijima's doing. Ushijima himself was nowhere to be seen – he must have gone back to his own room, after putting Oikawa and Iwaizumi to bed.
“Thanks,” Oikawa said and greedily emptied the entire glass, not bothering with the water that was running down his face and onto the covers.
Iwaizumi, on the other hand, bothered a lot. “Wonderful,” he sighed. “The size of this bed was already great, but it was really missing a wet touch.”
If Oikawa had any energy left, he would have used that opening to lick his finger and poke Iwaizumi's ear. Instead, he just scooted closer to the wall, to make a bit more room for Iwaizumi to plant his ass.
“You could have just gone and slept in Kuroo's bed,” Oikawa mumbled. The words were out before he actually thought about it, or even remembered what had happened at the IceBreaker. Now, the memories came rushing back like a sucker punch.
Iwaizumi used the new space to turn around and face Oikawa. The light was dim, but there was definitely a scowl on his face. Oikawa forced a grin.
“You really think you can fool me, huh?” Iwaizumi grunted. “I have witnessed you being reduced to tears because I paid more attention to your family's dog than you, and you think you can fool me.”
“I was five!” Oikawa screeched.
“You haven't matured much since then.”
Oikawa, who had contemplated giving his best friend a wet willy just seconds before, sniffed haughtily. “I'm so misunderstood. You of all people should know that it's just an act I put on. I'm honestly excited you're finally discovering your wild side.”
Iwaizumi waited a beat too long to respond and that's how Oikawa knew they were starting to get serious. Oikawa hated serious. That was when he was the most vulnerable.
“You know...” Iwaizumi started, clearing his throat awkwardly. One of his hands found Oikawa's to hold in a slightly sweaty grip before he tried again. “You know you can tell me anything, right?”
Oikawa snorted again, this time without any fake indignation.
“I mean it!” Iwaizumi said. The whites of his eyes were illuminated by the stray light particles sneaking in through the window from a street lamp below. He looked just as small and vulnerable as Oikawa felt.
“I'm not in love with you!” Oikawa said, as if Iwaizumi had just accused him of it. And then, on a complete whim, he added, “Kiss me!”
The whites vanished for a moment as Iwaizumi blinked slowly. “I... huh?”
“Kiss me!” Oikawa repeated, more urgently.
“But you just said-”
Oikawa's hand clamped around Iwaizumi's, just in case he dared to take it back after claiming Oikawa could tell him anything. “What if I'm wrong?” he said. “What if we're so brainwashed from growing up together that we're mistaking this for brotherly love? What if we're giving each other up for the likes of Ushiwaka and Kuroo? That would be so fucking stupid! What if we kissed each other and all of a sudden, angels started to sing? What if we had an awakening!”
“Life isn't a romance movie trope!” Iwaizumi argued, half amused.
“Then what are you so afraid of?”
Iwaizumi didn't have an answer for that.
“It was fine, before,” Oikawa continued in a small voice. “But now that I saw you throw away all your inhibitions and make out with some complete rando that you've never even met before, but hated anyway-”
It was Iwaizumi's turn to screech an explanation now. “I was drunk!”
“And?” Oikawa said. “Are you not anymore? Do you need to catch up again? I'm sure if we look hard enough, we can find where Kuroo stashed his booze in here.”
This time, Iwaizumi did let go of his hand. He started to get up, but then he didn't. He just sat in the bed, looking down at Oikawa with judging eyes.
“I'm sor-” Oikawa started to say, but Iwaizumi silenced him by pulling him up by his arm.
“Don't fucking apologize when you don't mean it!” he said.
Oikawa's world started to shift and turn, his vision getting blurry as his blood was suddenly reminded that a huge amount of alcohol still sloshed around in there.
“I did mean it!” he managed to say. It was hard to keep up a conversation when his whole upper body felt like it was made of gum. Thankfully, Iwaizumi grabbed his other arm, too, and pressed him against the wall for support.
“Then don't fucking apologize when you're right,” Iwaizumi huffed.
Oikawa narrowed his eyes. He started to recover from the sudden movement, but what Iwaizumi had said still made no sense to him. He didn't even know Iwaizumi was able to utter these words in that exact order.
“Did you just tell me I'm righ-” he started to ask, but then he had other things to worry about.
Because Iwaizumi was finally, finally giving in. After years of Oikawa proclaiming him his white whale, Iwaizumi gave up on all his principles and simply leaned in to kiss him. On the mouth. With tongue. And while Oikawa was already not too sure about where up and down was, now reality and fiction started to mix, too.
It didn't take long for the first tear to swash over the dam Oikawa had pulled up behind his eyes. It was nice, and Iwaizumi was a good kisser, but there were no angels singing. There was no awakening. Oikawa wasn't any less confused than he was before – if anything, he was more confused.
Iwaizumi started to pull away when he noticed the sudden wetness between their faces, but Oikawa couldn't let that happen – not yet. Not so soon. He chased Iwaizumi's lips until he wasn't pushed back against the wall anymore and instead half lay on his best friend on the bed, desperate to kiss the spark into existence. Which was hard, when he was drowning Iwaizumi in his stupid tears until he had to break away for air.
They lay there for a moment, just breathing hard, Oikawa burying his wet face in the crook of Iwaizumi's neck.
“Damn...” Iwaizumi finally groaned. “Is that a normal occurrence? Like, is this some kind of kink I never knew existed and everyone is so obsessed with you because you're the only guy who will drown them during kissing – like some kind of erotic asphyxiation?”
Oikawa snorted a gross mix of tears and snot into Iwaizumi's shoulder and didn't even get chided for it.
“So, no angels singing, I guess?” Iwaizumi said after a small pause.
“Please!” Oikawa snorted again. “Life is no romance movie trope. No angels ever sang for me.” He lifted his head a little, checking Iwaizumi's face. “There is a devil following me with his fiddle, though. In my dreams.”
“Akaashi?”
“How did you know?”
“He has that look,” Iwaizumi shrugged. “Although I rather see him coming at you with the smallest violin in the world.”
“How the fuck am I not in love with you?” Oikawa moaned. “You understand me so well!”
“That's probably it,” said Iwaizumi. “You'd be bored to death by me. You crave the drama and the thrill of figuring someone out. Maybe we'll get another chance with each other when we're both old men, tired of such youthful foolishness.”
Oikawa gave a content sigh. The tears started to dry, and despite the initial awkwardness, the situation felt normal again. “That actually sounds amazing. I can't wait to be an old man.”
“You'll be ugly without your hair to deflect from your personality,” Iwaizumi prophesied.
“What makes you think I'd be too proud for a toupee?”
Iwaizumi just rolled his eyes, not bothering with a response and letting them fall into silence again, both pondering what had just happened.
“Just in case you were wondering,” Oikawa piped up after a while. “You're a much better kisser than Kuroo. No need to worry about your lack of experience.”
“I wasn't worrying about that at all,” Iwaizumi lied. “And it's not like it matters. I'm not going to repeat what happened tonight. In fact, I'm not planning on seeing Kuroo ever again – we can make plans without him, can't we?”
“Sure we can,” Oikawa smiled into Iwaizumi's neck. “But you can't make Kuroo's plans without you.”
He didn't bother answering Iwaizumi's confused hum, because he fell asleep right then and there, his head comfortably tucked between his best friend's head and shoulder, body sprawled across him, fitting perfectly into each other.
The knock that woke them carried the implication of 'I have milkbread, please let me in!' that Oikawa had come to know so well.
However, he was not prepared to open the door to three individual cases of early morning bribery. Kuroo, who Oikawa had predicted would come, gave a pointedly nonchalant shrug. “I was in the neighborhood,” he said, “and the whole campus smelled of freshly baked milkbread, so I automatically thought of you.”
Yahaba, clutching his own brown paper bag, pointed his thumb at Kuroo. “What he said.”
And lastly, Ushijima spoke up. “I brought my coffee machine.”
“Great, you can come in,” Oikawa said. “The rest of you, shoo!”
Of course, Kuroo and Yahaba walked in anyway. Oikawa glanced toward Iwaizumi, who was still hiding under the covers of the bed, trying to act as if he didn't remember last night at all. Only his spiky hair poked out, but he didn't feign sleep. “Fuck, you were right,” he groaned darkly from beneath the covers. “This is annoying as hell.”
“Can you believe even the campus bakery is profiting off me now?” Oikawa huffed. “There was never an over-production of milkbread before!” He turned around to eye the three intruders. “Which one of you is actually here to see me?”
Ushijima raised his hand, as if he were in class.
“Why are you so opposed to hanging out with your friends?” Kuroo hummed, sitting down on the floor, where Yahaba joined him. “I told you I can't do stuff with Bokuto and Akaashi for a while, and that's your fault to begin with.”
“I don't think I could wake my boyfriend if I had a trombone at hand,” Yahaba said. “Thought I would come here and make you scream about something – that's the only thing that can wake him anymore.”
Iwaizumi, realizing that there would be too much talking to sleep through, finally forced his legs over the edge of the bed. He looked like an angry porcupine, which was probably how he had attracted Kuroo in the first place, belonging to the same species and all. They both carefully avoided their eyes meeting.
“How did he get you to feed him this sugary stuff?” Iwaizumi asked, joining Ushijima by the kitchen counter, where the coffee machine along with a huge array of different syrups was being set up.
“He had some very convincing arguments,” Ushijima said. No one even took that as an innuendo, which insulted Oikawa greatly. But not as much as Ushijima turning to Iwaizumi for advice. “Do you have a good counter-argument? I always find myself losing these sorts of discussions.”
“Sure I do,” Iwaizumi huffed. “Oikawa, stop putting shit into your body or I'll kill you before the sugar can.”
“I doubt this would have the same effect, coming from me,” Ushijima recognized, and rightly so.
Oikawa decided to ignore those two for now and sank to the floor beside Kuroo – a little too close for comfort.
“Sleep well?” he asked sweetly.
“Never better,” Kuroo answered in the same, saccharine tone.
“I figured. You're not usually one to wake up so early and be out and about getting breakfast after a night of partying.”
“I'm getting older and more responsible, I guess,” Kuroo lied.
“Responsible?” Oikawa scoffed. “I'm not even sure you can spell that.”
“R – E – S – P,” Kuroo started easily, “O – N – I - shit!”
A wave of glee overcame Oikawa upon realizing that his behavior was having an actual effect on Kuroo. At least until a floating coffee mug appeared in front of Kuroo's face and Kuroo tilted his head back to discover Iwaizumi standing there, offering him coffee before Oikawa had had any.
“Don't let him get to you,” Iwaizumi said, throwing Oikawa a glare. “He's seen too many movies.”
“Excuse me?” Oikawa looked at Yahaba for back-up, but realized upon looking into a madly grinning face that he was just here for the drama. “Why's that asshole getting coffee before me?”
“The asshole clearly needs it,” Iwaizumi shrugged.
“Yeah!” Kuroo nodded eagerly. “That asshole can't even spell anymore.”
“That was supposed to embarrass you,” Oikawa hissed. He couldn't believe he somehow managed to kill the awkwardness between those two. Luckily, Ushijima appeared with a second mug at that moment, and Oikawa could immediately smell that it was filled with caramel syrup, so he was placated for now.
Once everyone had a mug of coffee and a piece of milkbread placed before them, they huddled up in a circle to discuss the day's plan. Futakuchi barged into the room halfway through breakfast, demanding to know where his boyfriend was, and was bribed with coffee to stop yelling.
In the end, they decided on a visit to a small theme park, which was only a moderate train ride away. None of them had ever been, but they all figured they just had to get a picture of Ushijima on a roller-coaster.
“We should hurry, though,” Futakuchi said, gulping down the rest of his coffee. “If we get there too late, we'll be stuck in queues all day long.”
Everyone scrambled to get back to their rooms for a quick shower, except for Ushijima, who had arrived fully dressed and smelling of flowers. Before Oikawa knew what was happening, three people had run off without even putting their mugs in the sink, while Iwaizumi started for the bathroom.
He was left sitting on the floor next to Ushijima, who looked just as taken aback by the mad rush.
“Is there gonna be some kind of beauty pageant they need to win?” Oikawa wondered. “And if so, why would anyone think they could beat me?”
Ushijima shrugged his shoulders as if he couldn't believe it either.
They both turned their heads when Iwaizumi stumbled out of the bathroom again to dig through his bag for clothes to wear.
“Well, Iwa-chan at least knows he couldn't beat me, so my only guess is that there is someone he wants to impress,” Oikawa told Ushijima conspiratorially.
“Shut up!” Iwaizumi bellowed, but he didn't even stop to throw something at Oikawa's head before he was back in the bathroom.
Ushijima commented on Oikawa's huge grin with a thoughtful, “Hm!”
“Yes, I'm feeling better,” Oikawa said, rolling his eyes. He was starting to become a master Ushiwaka-interpreter. “By the way, I thought about what you asked me yesterday. You know, if I'm in love with...” he vaguely gestured towards the bathroom.
Ushijima took a small sip from his coffee, waiting for Oikawa to continue.
“I couldn't say for sure, so I put it to the test.” He looked at Ushijima, almost challenging. “I kissed him.”
He wasn't sure why exactly he was telling Ushijima. It wasn't like he had to come clean about it – Oikawa could kiss whoever the fuck he liked. Maybe he just wanted to make sure Ushijima knew this.
If he was subconsciously hoping for Ushijima to despair, he was disappointed. Ushijima just raised one of his bushy eyebrows, still waiting for Oikawa to get to the point.
“It was great,” Oikawa huffed, feeling a little provoked. “You know, for someone who barely ever kisses people, he's quite talented.”
Ushijima, who seemed to be somewhat of an Oikawa-interpreter himself, set down his mug with a soft click – he had insisted on using a plate for a saucer. “So you're not in love with him. I guess that's good news for me.”
“Yes, I can really feel the joy emanating from your brick of a face,” Oikawa said. Ushijima deigned to smile at the sour tone of voice. “Would you even care?”
“I care about your happiness,” Ushijima said softly. “So I guess I wouldn't care about you being in love with someone else. But from an egoistic standpoint, I am relieved, if that's what you want to hear.”
“I wasn't sure you were capable of an egoistic standpoint, even though I think that you're the most self-absorbed person that ever existed,” Oikawa said, chuckling at the irony. “And I know that's rich, coming from me.”
“That's because you're still mostly acquainted with my volleyball-self. I get how you'd think me self-absorbed when it comes to that. But in my private life, I'm quite the opposite. Whereas you are-”
“The exact other way 'round,” Oikawa completed the sentence with a sense of wonder. “Oh, wow. Who knew you'd make a good partner to discuss existential questions with. I didn't ever think of you as a man of many talents, but I admit, the talents keep accumulating.”
Ushijima took the mug back into his hands, to take another slow sip, exchanging suggestive looks with Oikawa over the mug's edge. Oikawa bit his lip with a smile, when the bathroom door swung open and Iwaizumi stomped out, looking and smelling a lot fresher than when he went in.
“Bathroom's free,” he announced, sitting down between them. “Hurry up, we don't have a lot of time.”
Oikawa raised his arm to smell his armpit. “I'm fine?” he said, even though he knew he was reeking. “Ushiwaka, wanna sme-”
“For fuck's sake!” Iwaizumi screeched, kicking at Oikawa to make him jump up. “Don't be fucking gross! And you!” He turned to Ushijima as if he had actually taken part in the little act. “At least look a little put-off! Oikawa is very unattractive sometimes, you better remember that.”
“Wow, you're really barking up the wrong tree there,” Oikawa said on his way to the bathroom. “Ushiwaka's more obsessed with me than all of Oikawatch. In his eyes, I'm probably walking around bathed in a permanent Valencia filter and a flutter of hearts in my wake.”
He closed the bathroom door to Ushijima telling Iwaizumi in seeming seriousness, “He makes me see colors-”, and almost honked at the joy of understanding this little private joke which Iwaizumi would undoubtedly mistake as sincerity. He could almost hear the gag through the door.
Iwaizumi had made the mistake of leaving his shower gel in the shower and Oikawa used it generously. It smelled of icy glaciers and fir trees. How manly. Once he was done, he hopped out with only a small towel wrapped around his hip.
“Smell me now!” Oikawa announced, walking out of the bathroom. “I smell like a mountaineer!”
“I doubt a mountaineer would smell good,” Iwaizumi said. He and Ushijima were both standing at the kitchen counter, washing and drying the used mugs. Oikawa's heart skipped a beat at the sight.
“Well, it's a far cry from smelling like coconuts!” he said, twirling in his little towel. Ushijima was definitely looking out of the corners of his eyes.
“What's wrong with coconuts?” Ushijima asked.
“Nothing – it makes me even cuter. But since I'm already so damn cute, I thought I'd go for something more masculine today.”
Ushijima and Iwaizumi both regarded him with the exact same look, one that would have been even more perfect if they were both wearing gold-rimmed glasses.
“I should go for a lumberjack look today,” Oikawa mused, scuttling toward his closet, where he suddenly found all the clothes that had been lying around the room perfectly folded. Ushijima had taken care of everything last night. Maybe Oikawa should cry like a child more often. “I'm sure there's a plaid shirt in here somewhere.”
Before he could start tearing the folded stacks of clothes apart, Ushijima and Iwaizumi both appeared at his side, Iwaizumi taking him in a stranglehold while Ushijima burrowed through the closet.
Oikawa screeched and rioted, but secretly, he enjoyed this moment more than anything. Ushijima and Iwaizumi dressed him in actual sensible clothes, none of them batting an eyelid at his naked body, working as a team as if they had never done anything else – he didn't know why this made him so happy. Maybe because it was so damn domestic. If Oikawa couldn't have Iwaizumi as the love of his life, then why not like this? Fitting so perfectly into his relationship with someone else, seeming so at home and happy, with no desire for a life of his own. Not belonging to anyone but Oikawa.
As if on cue, the door opened to Kuroo, waltzing in with a little army in tow.
“What the fuck are those two traitors doing here?” Oikawa barked.
Kuroo looked back, as if surprised to find Misaki and Shirofuku at his heels. “I ran into them on my way here and made the mistake of mentioning theme parks,” he said, shrugging.
“Cotton candy. Cinnamon bread. Ice cream. Deep-fried everything,” Shirofuku drooled.
“Hello?” Oikawa threw up his hands. “I wanted to spend a nice weekend with my best friend, not half the campus!”
Misaki, for once, gave him an actually emphatic look. “Don't worry,” she said. “We'll probably be stuck around the food stalls while you're on your rides.”
Oikawa decided to give her an emphatic look back. He was a nice person, after all. Sometimes.
From out in the hall they heard Yahaba and Futakuchi call for everyone to hurry up. Oikawa grabbed a fanny pack which he saw sticking out of the closet, and grinned at Iwaizumi's scowl.
“What? They're in style now! Maybe not back when I bought it, but who knows, I may just have started this trend. Plus, it fits my theme park persona.”
“Who the fuck has a theme park persona?” he heard Iwaizumi mumble, but he was already skipping out the door, humming with energy and the thrill of anticipation for another awesome day ahead.
The theme park, it turned out, was more of a glorified funfair. It was mostly food stalls, which was great for Shirofuku, but not so great for anyone else. The biggest ride in the park was a wooden roller-coaster, which looked a little uncomfortable, but better than nothing.
“Not even a water ride?” Kuroo whined, squinting up at the burning sun. “At least it's not as full as we feared.”
Oikawa decided to be the grown-up here and do inventory. “I see bumper cars. A roller-coaster, fortune-reading, a house of mirrors, a huge trampoline, and I think there's some boat-riding going on down there, at the pond. Enough to fill a day, if we take a few breaks to eat and drink, and do some things twice. Besides, all this is better than standing in queues for five hours and getting on two or three 40-second rides. So all of you stop whining, I'm here to enjoy myself.”
“I don't get to say that often, but I'm with Oikawa,” Misaki said. They seemed to get along well today. How exciting. “What do we start with? I say, go big or go home.”
“Roller-coaster it is,” Futakuchi said. “Before anyone-” he gave Shirofuku heavy side-eye, “ -has stuffed themselves full enough for the pukeocalypse.”
Shirofuku looked unbothered. “I have never puked even once in my life. Once I ingested something, I'm not going to return it to some lame-ass gravity.”
Misaki's tired face made it more than clear that this was a bald-faced lie.
They strolled past a row of souvenir shops to where the wooden roller-coaster was looming across the park – the only ride big enough to find from a distance. There was no queue once they arrived there, which was incredibly lucky.
“Does anyone else feel like this may not be a good sign?” Iwaizumi asked gloomily.
“Yup! This looks more like it belongs in an abandoned mine than in a theme park,” Kuroo agreed.
Oikawa rolled his eyes, because Kuroo would try to suck up to Iwaizumi all day long and it was already starting to get nauseous. “Maybe abandoned mines are the theme of this theme park,” he said. “It's not like there's any other discernible 'theme'.”
The way towards the wagons was ridiculously long, as if the planners had expected people to stand in line for about three hours, which was a case of baseless confidence not even Oikawa had ever gone through. Ushijima had to hate it.
The wagons were just big enough for all of them to fit into one car – three rows for three people. Oikawa quickly grabbed Iwaizumi and Ushijima and pushed them into the front row. Kuroo was left to share a row with the vile lesbians, while Yahaba and Futakuchi climbed into the back.
A bored employee came to push down the restraints, then the wagon suddenly jumped forward with an ominous screech.
“Oh shit,” at least four people said at once. Oikawa was one of them. They were only just going up the first ramp, and already, his bones were being rattled so much, he wasn't sure if any of them would be in the same place once he got off this ride.
“This is going to hurt,” Misaki sighed from behind him. “But it's too late to get off. Hold on to your boobs, babe.”
They were nearing the top.
“This is it, everyone,” Oikawa warned. “Don't forget to smile for the camera!”
Any response was swallowed by the wagon tipping over the highest point. The world started to vibrate so bad, all Oikawa was able to hear were his own teeth clattering. One and a half minutes of pure hell followed – it felt like hours. No one screamed, because it hurt too much, and once the ride was finally, finally over, Oikawa found that all the bones in his legs had been replaced by gummy worms and he was unable to get out. Ushijima saved him from a second round by grabbing him under the armpits and dragging him out.
“I propose from now on we listen to Iwaizumi's gut feeling,” Yahaba wheezed as he sank down to the ground with shaking legs. “Also, I might have peed myself.”
“This is the worst pain I have ever endured in my life!” Oikawa said, and he meant it. This was even worse than when he had hurt his ankle.
“Now imagine you have tits!” Misaki pressed out. She and Shirofuku were both standing there, their arms wrapped around their chests, as if glad nothing had jumped out and bounced through the park like a bouncy ball.
“I'm not sure I want to see that photo,” Kuroo said. “I mean, I get it, we all want to see Ushijima's face, but I have a feeling the picture will be blurry as hell anyway. Besides, Oikawa, you may not look good on it.” He paused for a second, leaving room for Oikawa to insert one of his usual replies, and looked concerned when none came. “Oikawa?”
“Huh?” Oikawa looked up to everyone staring at him. “Oh! I'm sorry. I was still imagining I have tits.”
Groaning, all around, except for Misaki, who nodded pensively. “You know what? I think they'd suit you.”
“Surprising take,” Kuroo said. “But would you voluntarily put yourself in a position where you might mistake the burning hatred Oikawa evokes inside you with sexual attraction?”
“I'm not sexually attracted to tits,” Misaki countered. “Or romanticized antagonism. If someone's being an asshole, my first instinct isn't to wonder how they may insult me in bed. But I know how that would be confusing to you.”
Kuroo turned bright red under the amused, suggestive looks everyone sent him.
“What?” he screeched. “I can't be the only one who thinks a little banter is kinda sexy? How else do you flirt?”
“Try buying them a drink,” Iwaizumi suggested.
“I'm more worried about the conversation part!” Kuroo turned to Yahaba and Futakuchi, thinking hard. “Okay, fine – you guys mostly fanboy about some obscure stuff, no intelligent banter in sight.” He ignored Futkakuchi's middle finger to turn towards Misaki and Shirofuku. “And you guys are just... soft and mushy and gross. But never mean to each other. But surely...” he turned to Oikawa and Ushijima, who awaited his assessment with raised eyebrows. Kuroo took a while to think it through, until all light seemed to go out of his eyes.
“Wait a minute...” he said. “Not even goddamned Oikawa needs any banter in his relationship? What the- Is this why my love life is completely nonexistent?” He pulled at his hair with actual agony. “Have I driven away every potential partner by jokingly insulting them and thinking that was kinda cute?”
Oikawa couldn't take not being the center of attention any longer. He rolled his eyes and flicked his finger against Kuroo's forehead. “Calm the fuck down,” he said. “Ushiwaka is the one incapable of good banter, not me! I won't have you slander me like that.”
“Are you all done?” Iwaizumi huffed. “Didn't we want to get the picture from the booth? Who knows how long they keep them saved.”
Futakuchi and Yahaba took the reminder for an excuse to turn away from their group and jog towards the picture-booth, where it only took half a second for them to be reduced to a screeching, wheezing mess. Everyone else turned to give Ushijima a skeptical look.
“What did you do?” Oikawa asked.
Ushijima shrugged his shoulders, just as lost as everyone else. “Let's go take a look.”
They carefully approached the picture-booth, where another bored employee stood in a corner and waited for the two students folded across her counter in a possibly lethal laughing fit to either recover or pass out from the lack of air. Mounted on the other side of the counter was a wall full of little, square screens. There were barely any pictures on it, so it didn't take long to find theirs.
Just like Kuroo had predicted, the picture was mostly blurred – however, it was blurred in the best way possible. Oikawa had three pairs of eyes, Iwaizumi was just one big, gaping mouth. But between them, in complete high-resolution, sat Ushijima, staring straight into the camera with a grim smile.
“You did what I told you to do?” Oikawa asked, oddly touched, as everyone else succumbed to the same laughing fit that still seized Futakuchi and Yahaba. Beside him, Ushijima shrugged again.
“It was hard to spot the camera with all the vibrating,” he said. “That face is just me being pleased I found it.”
Oikawa turned to the employee, who was now staring down into her phone. Groups of people almost shitting themselves in front of her booth, because they thought their photo looked funny, was probably not news to her.
“I'll take one, please.”
“Me too!” Kuroo wheezed, amazingly the first one to beat his own braying. “It... it looks like Ushijima is some kind of wizard... who has us all under some spell!”
He sure had Oikawa under some spell. Though Oikawa was just as amused as the others, the picture summoned a warm feeling in his stomach. And he didn't even look good on it.
“Come on!” Oikawa said, once he had paid for the picture and carefully rolled it up to put into his fanny pack. “I want to ride the bumper cars next!”
He and Iwaizumi scraped Yahaba off the counter and together, they helped him walk away from the picture booth, until he gained back the strength to hold himself upright. A few paces behind them, Ushijima was the only one to take pity on Futakuchi.
Before they even got close to the bumper cars, Shirofuku piped up, “What about food?”
“Don't tell me your stomach is ready for something to eat!” Yahaba groaned.
“How will a row of simulated car-crashes be better for your stomach?” Shirofuku argued, successfully. Yahaba grew an interesting shade of yellow at the thought.
“Let's split up,” Kuroo proposed. “And meet again at this exact place in half an hour.”
Oikawa squinted his eyes at Kuroo, to make sure he knew how Oikawa saw right through him. With Misaki and Shirofuku heading for the food-stalls, and Yahaba and Futakuchi hunting down a public toilet, there were only four people left for the bumping cars. He definitely planned on sharing one with Iwaizumi.
However, when they arrived at the bumping cars, it turned out that Oikawa needn't have worried. The ride was obviously meant for kids and the cars too small for two fully grown men to share. So they each squeezed into their own car, knees comically sticking out like spider legs. Ushijima was worst affected. He was basically sitting on the top of the car, instead of in the seat, but none of the bored employees seemed to be concerned for his safety. Oikawa wondered where they found this special breed of employees and if it would be worth applying for a summer job. He would look so good arrogantly standing around, ignoring all the goings-on around him to look down into his phone instead and blowing bubble-gums.
The little daydream brutally burst when something collided with his car and sent him careening across the floor. His car turned a few times before it came to a halt and through the ringing in his ear, he could hear Kuroo's braying.
“Keep your head in the game, sucker!” Kuroo called from the other end of the floor area, unaware that Ushijima was already on his way to avenge Oikawa. His braying turned into a drawn-out scream when Ushijima's car collided with this rear end and pushed him right into the poles marking the edge of the floor, where Kuroo's rubber bumper ricocheted off of, right back into Ushijima's car and from there back into the poles.
Oikawa scream-laughed at him and made his middle fingers dance once Kuroo started whining that it was unfair for them to gang up. With both his hands off the steering wheel, he almost tumbled out of the car when Iwaizumi turned full-on traitor and bumped him from the side.
“He's right – ganging up is unfair,” Iwaizumi told him, grinning.
Oikawa grabbed his steering wheel, vowing not to take his hands off of it ever again, and shot Iwaizumi a dark look. “Bad move, Iwa-chan. Very bad move. You chose the wrong ally in this game.”
“I'm not sure!” Iwaizumi smirked, pointing to where Ushijima was trying his hardest to chase Kuroo around the floor – except his car seemed to be so slowed down by his weight that it looked like a snail chasing a mouse.
Oikawa couldn't let that happen, so he sped away from Iwaizumi to cut off Kuroo's escape route. They crashed together with an avalanche of colorful swears, prompting a few parents waiting in line to cover their children's ears, but the swearing didn't ease up once Ushijima finally caught up to them as the same time as Iwaizumi and caused a multiple collision.
Once they got off the ride, everyone was rubbing a different part of their body.
“I feel like this day might be bad for our health,” Oikawa groaned, side-eyeing Ushijima, who walked next to him and discreetly rubbed at his own butt. “I'm surprised you haven't said anything about it yet.”
“Yeah, what happened to keeping our bodies in pristine condition?” Kuroo asked, eyebrows raised.
To everyone's surprise, Ushijima just shrugged. “I'm having fun,” he said. “Sometimes, it's important to keep yourself happy in order for your body to function.”
Iwaizumi nodded in understanding. “Don't you ride a motorcycle? That definitely raises the fun factor over the risk of ruining your body.”
“True,” Oikawa mused, “he's preaching empty words. Always scolding everyone while he leads a wild life.”
“A wild life,” Kuroo snorted. They had reached the meeting spot, but were too early. None of the others was in sight. “Going to a children's theme park hardly counts as a wild life.”
“Really?” drawled Iwaizumi. There was a challenge in his voice, which sent goosebumps down Oikawa's spine, because he recognized that voice. That was Iwaizumi flirting. There had not been many times for Oikawa to witness Iwaizumi flirting, but he was certain. This was it. His voice got even deeper, sounding deceptively nonchalant, when he said, “I doubt you'd be brave enough to go back on that wooden roller-coaster.”
Gross.
Kuroo's smile turned cat-that-got-the-canary in a matter of seconds. He had not missed the flirting. “You doubt me?” he said in almost the exact same voice. “I lead a much wilder life than Ushiwaka, of all people.”
“Prove it,” Iwaizumi said. “We still have time and I don't think the line will be long.”
Oikawa felt helpless in stopping this. While he really didn't want them to run off together, he had zero desires to go back on that roller-coaster. In fact, he couldn't believe that they would go to such lengths just to escape his overbearing presence.
Both of them gave him an expectant look, so he waved them off and watched as they ran away like two excited children.
Ushijima looked mightily impressed.
“I did not expect that,” he admitted. And as if Oikawa hadn't understood perfectly, he clarified, “That you would not try to stop them, I mean.”
“I would have, if it were just Kuroo,” Oikawa said grumpily. “But for whatever reason, Iwa-chan sees something in that sleazy alley cat. What kind of friend would I be to deny him a single weekend of fun and experimentation?”
“A clingy one?”
Oikawa snorted. “Will you ever learn what rhetorical questions are?”
“Maybe if you teach me,” Ushijima said.
“Okay.” It was hard to hold back another snort. “Will you ever learn what rhetorical questions are, for example, was a rhetorical question.”
“Oh.” Ushijima's hand twitched, as if he longed for a notebook to write it all down in and Oikawa gave up the attempt at being disappointed in Iwaizumi and Kuroo for running off together. For whatever reason, Ushijima managed to entertain him just fine, even if it wasn't through deliberate intelligent banter. Maybe Oikawa was just growing out of that pretentious phase where every conversation was a fight that could either be won or lost.
He looked around the park, but didn't see anyone from their group in proximity.
“Seriously!” he grumbled. “They all ran away to have their own private little date! And the worst part is that Futakuchi and Yahaba probably have the best date out of us all! They're in the toilets! And it's taking awfully long!”
“Would you like us to have our own mini-date?” Ushijima proposed, holding out his elbow for Oikawa to hook his arm through.
“There you go!” Oikawa said, taking the arm. “Finally reading between the lines.”
“I won't take you to the toilets, though.”
“Spoilsport,” Oikawa muttered. “Fine then. Where are you taking me?”
Ushijima started walking towards a group of little stalls which were all decorated with huge plushies. They seemed to be the trophies for different games. Can knockdown, darts, a shooting gallery.
“Are you trying to win me my own Wakabear? Because I remember our game of darts and I'm afraid we will be here all week before you come even close.”
But Ushijima steered them past the stalls, towards a little hut almost swallowed by a bunch of decorative bamboo.
“I thought this might be something you'd like,” he said, coming to a halt before it. Now that they were standing close, Oikawa could finally make out the lettering above the hut, which was half faded, half peeling off.
“Photobooth,” he read. “Seriously? You wanna take funny pictures with me?”
“No, I thought I'd suck your cock,” Ushijima said.
Oikawa choked on his own spit so hard that he was coughing for a full minute before he calmed down enough to hear Ushijima's apology.
“I'm sorry, Oikawa! It was just a joke!”
“Great!” Oikawa wheezed. His eyes were still watering too much to see clearly, but he could still make out Ushijima's worried expression. “You're joking and I'm choking. Will we ever stop misunderstanding each other?”
“I'll never do it again,” Ushijima promised. “We will just have to come to terms with the fact that I am bad at jokes.”
“No!” Oikawa whined, sucking in enough air to clear his mistreated airways. “I'm just not used to it. Honestly, you keep surprising me, and that's exactly what I wanted, isn't it?”
Ushijima nodded slowly.
“You're doing great!” Oikawa said with one last cough. “You know, I think this weekend really makes me realize how much worse my taste in men could be.”
“Kuroo's not that bad,” Ushijima said.
“Hush now! For future reference – if I say you're not the worst person in the world, that's a big step up and a compliment you should take. Now – you said something about funny pictures?” Oikawa stepped towards the wooden door and pulled it open, half expecting to find a pair of mating rats or a pigeon's nest inside, but surprisingly, it was clean and although the tech inside looked to be from the last century, it all seemed to be in working condition.
Ushijima squeezed himself in behind Oikawa, sinking down on the little stool in the middle as Oikawa closed the door. They fed the machine with a few coins and watched as the screen flickered to life before them.
“Remember to not just sit there like a brick!” Oikawa reminded him and pushed the button without further warning.
Two minutes later, they were outside, patiently waiting on the pictures, which crept out of a slot in slow motion. Ushijima had not taken the instructions to be un-brickly fast enough, so the first picture was just him, scowling at the camera, while Oikawa sat across his lap with a bright smile. The second picture had captured the exact moment when the machination of Ushijima's mind started working – he imitated Oikawa's peace sign, but not his facial expression, which was still the same scowl.
“Un-fucking-believable!” Oikawa ranted, staring at the pictures, which took forever to print. Half of the photo was still stuck inside the machine. “You managed to smile on the roller-coaster!”
“I was better prepared,” Ushijima defended himself.
“Prepared?” Oikawa said. “What, did you spend the entire ride with that grim smile on your face?”
Ushijima's scowl deepened, which caused Oikawa to yell an amused, “Ha!”
“I did smile, by the way,” Ushijima said, nodding toward the slot, which was just spitting out the third picture. In it, Oikawa had tried to get Ushijima to make a different face, so he had kissed him on the lips, sweet and short.
“Your face isn't even visible here!” Oikawa said.
“I did!” Ushijima insisted.
They both stood there, staring at the picture still creeping out of the slot at the speed of a dead snail. Everything came down to that fourth and last picture now. The first thing printed was a huge smile, but it was just Oikawa's, turned back towards the camera, hoping to finally have woken Ushijima from his stupor. But as the picture crept on, a second smile became visible. No teeth, but soft and warm, and Oikawa instantly knew that the eyes, which would take another five years to be printed, would not be trained on the camera.
“Huh,” he said, softly. “It worked.”
“I told you!” Ushijima sounded smug – as if he had honestly worked hard to show the camera a smile and wasn't instead looking at Oikawa with the softest expression a camera had ever captured.
Somewhere behind them, steps could be heard coming closer. Kuroo's drawling voice carried from afar.
“What are you doing there?”
Oikawa grabbed the picture at the exact second the printer stopped whirring and pulled it out of the slot to bury it in his fanny pack, ignoring Ushijima's funny look.
“Nothing. I mean. Ushiwaka just sucked my cock in this abandoned photobooth.”
Kuroo and Iwaizumi both made a face, oddly in tandem, as if their close proximity to each other connected their brain synapses. Or maybe they had been making out on the roller-coaster and the shaking exchanged their brains through their mouths. Oikawa voiced none of these thoughts, feeling like a real martyr, and nodded towards their meeting place instead. The other two couples were already standing there, waving at them. Shirofuku was holding a cotton candy, which was so big, it towered over the whole group.
Iwaizumi squinted his eyes. “Is that a balloon?” he asked.
“Whatever it is, I want one,” Kuroo said. They both turned and walked away without sparing Oikawa another glance, even though he was having a secret meltdown over thinking about their whole group in terms of 'couples'. Ushijima was the only one to give him a worried look.
“Are you okay?”
“Fine,” Oikawa croaked. “I just... I never expected this group outing to turn so... romantic.”
“Is it so bad?” Ushijima asked, eyebrows raised, and Oikawa's fanny pack suddenly felt a little heavier. But it was not the picture Ushijima was speaking of. He added, “They both look very happy. And I don't think they will ever adore you any less, just because they like each other.”
“Adore me,” Oikawa huffed, rolling his eyes. “If you include Kuroo in this, I think I might puke.”
“I am including Kuroo in this,” Ushijima said. He scowled, trying to figure out if Oikawa might actually mean it when he said he was going to puke, but decided it must have been a hyperbole. Oikawa silently applauded the reasoning process and took Ushijima's hand in his as a reward.
“Come on, or they'll leave without us.”
They caught up to the others just in time to find out it had been decided they'd visit the boat-riding pond next, and Oikawa had to come to terms with the fact that this day would not get any less romantic. But Ushijima was right. Iwaizumi really did look happy. He and Kuroo were bickering without pause – they were both very good at it. It had to be a nice change to have it double as flirting, Oikawa could definitely relate to that. Iwaizumi was usually too caught up in his studies and Kuroo too caught up in the Oikawa/Bokuto maelstrom for a chance to use their questionable skills for flirting.
Plus, watching them try to row a boat together, was deeply hilarious.
“Who do you reckon will drown first?” Oikawa asked. He was hiding from the sun underneath his own cotton candy balloon, which Ushijima had bought for him on the way to the pond.
Shirofuku, who was the only one who had stayed with him on the shore, made a thoughtful face while she let a piece of her third cotton candy balloon melt on her tongue. She really wasn't interested in the rides, whereas Oikawa refused to participate in any more romantic shit, which was why Ushijima was now rowing Misaki in incredibly fast circles around the pond.
“I mean, you'd think it had to be Kuroo,” Shirofuku mused, once the cotton candy had melted. “Seeing as Iwaizumi looks like he's going to bitch-slap him right in the face with his paddle any minute now. But! I think the inside of these boats is super slippery from like moss growing everywhere. So here's how I think it will play out: Kuroo will make another stupid comment about Iwaizumi not being able to keep up with Ushijima. Iwaizumi, haunted from years and years of feeling beneath Ushijima, will explode, throw one of his paddles at Kuroo, miss, stand up with the other to use it like a weapon, and once he tries to swing it, he will slip on the mossy ground and knock himself out, flip the boat, and plunge them both into the water. Being unconscious and all, he will of course start to drown, but since Kuroo was luckily not bitch-slapped into oblivion, he'll grab the back of his shirt at the last minute and safely deliver him onto the shore, where a round of CPR turns into a very drawn-out kiss-”
“What?” Oikawa shrieked, interrupting the story. “How did this turn into a love story after all that?”
Shirofuku shrugged and put another piece of cotton candy onto her tongue. “Feels right,” she pronounced, with her tongue sticking out.
“I think your boobs have come loose in that roller-coaster after all!” Oikawa huffed.
“Is that where you think my brain is?”
“It certainly isn't up here!” Oikawa said, bonking her forehead with his fist. “Just so you know – Iwa-chan would never be stupid enough to trip out of a boat!”
“But if it's Kuroo, then Iwaizumi would definitely let him drown,” Shirofuku said. “I'm not ready for such a tragic end.”
“Please, look at the whole scene! Prince Charming is circling the pond with lightning speed. He'll definitely be there to save Kuroo in time.”
“Right!” Shirofuku said, eyes twinkling. “Ushijima will jump into the pond and grab Kuroo to swim him back to the surface. But Iwaizumi will be there waiting with his paddle, to finish Kuroo off. However, he doesn't realize that the head emerging from the water isn't Kuroo at all, and so Ushijima is cruelly knocked out and tragically perishes in the gross, muddy waters of this theme park pond.”
Oikawa almost slapped her with his cotton candy balloon and only held himself back because she would have somehow managed to take a bite out of it in the process. “What did poor Ushiwaka ever do to you?” he howled. “Just before you said you weren't ready for a tragic end, but you kill off Ushiwaka without a second's hesitation?”
“I'm only being realistic,” Shirofuku insisted. “Besides, I don't think a little death could hold Ushijima back.”
“Realistic my ass!” Oikawa snorted. “If Ushiwaka dies, then Kuroo dies with him – or do you think Iwa-chan would help him back into the boat after all that?”
They were interrupted by a huge splash coming from the direction of the pond, followed by a hysteric laugh and a wet splutter. Turning in tandem, they discovered Iwaizumi, Kuroo, and Ushijima all safely inside their boats. Instead, Futakuchi sat in the knee-deep pond-water, spouting algae and curses, while Yahaba almost toppled over the edge of the boat, laughing too hard.
“Well, there go our theories,” Oikawa dry-panned. “Turns out you couldn't even drown in that pond if the mafia put your feet into a block of concrete.”
Futakuchi's screaming was finally silenced when another bored employee chucked a life ring at his head and pushed him right back under water, which gave the whole story an unexpected plot twist, because it turned out that Shirofuku was the one who came closest to drowning in her own spit as a laughing fit caused her to inhale the piece of cotton candy through the wrong tube.
Oikawa helpfully offered a few choice slaps on her back, until she was able to breathe again.
“Serves you right,” he smirked, taking a piece out of her cotton candy balloon. Risky, he knew, but he was going to offer her his own as reimbursement. He would never be able to finish the whole thing anyway.
“May you rot in hell!” Shirofuku coughed back into his laughing face. “May all your loved ones turn from you and all your crops die!”
“I'm shaking in my boots!” Oikawa rolled his eyes and put his cotton candy in her hand as soon as he saw Misaki run towards them with a worried expression. Ushijima was right behind her, so Oikawa went to meet him halfway.
“So what happened to those two?” he asked, nodding towards a soaked Futakuchi who was held upright by his still giggling boyfriend.
Ushijima glanced towards them, assessed if they needed any assistance, and decided he'd rather stay with Oikawa than expose himself to Futakuchi's bad mood. “I think they tried to re-enact a scene from the movie Titanic,” he said, shaking his head slightly.
Oikawa, of course, was overjoyed.
“See?” he yelled, so that everyone could hear him. “That's the universe telling us all to stop with the romantic shit! This is literally God's just punishment! For turning my and Iwa-chan's fun day out into a quadruple-date! HA!”
Iwaizumi, who had just returned his paddles to the employee, stomped up next to him. “What the fuck are you talking about?”
“If we wanted to have a nice date, we would have stayed in and come up with another music video,” Yahaba yelled from a few feet away.
“Is this what you think romance is?” Misaki sighed, pointing at her girlfriend, who was still coughing pieces of cotton candy into the bush. “I was ready to see so much puke today.”
“Was I really the only one who thought this day had something inherently romantic about it?” Oikawa mused, much later, after they had all returned from the theme park and still weren't even sick enough of each other to visit the pizza place again.
Now, he was sitting on his bed with Iwaizumi, both of them in their pajamas, ready to go to sleep as soon as the need for a best-friend heart-to-heart recap of the day was fulfilled.
“I don't think anyone saw it as a quadruple-date,” Iwaizumi said, looking at some very interesting point at the ceiling. “Like, wouldn't that pair me with Kuroo? You know, just because I made a drunk mistake yesterday-”
“Cut the shit! Do you think I'm completely stupid? I know you!” Oikawa said. A grin was slowly spreading on his face, so he leaned in closer to make sure Iwaizumi's whole field of vision was filled with it. He let his voice drop an octave in a mocking imitation of Iwaizumi's. “I doubt you'd be brave enough to go back on that wooden roller-coaster. - You think I don't know this is your flirting voice? It literally hasn't changed from since you were in fourth grade!”
Iwaizumi's whole face turned red in a matter of seconds.
“I don't know what overcame me there!” he admitted, burying his head in his hands. “I swear I'm not interested in that asshole. It's just... it's...”
“You know, you don't have to explain yourself to me,” Oikawa said, leaning back with the air of someone very generous. “I know what it's like. I know that it's fun to have chemistry with someone unexpected, especially if it's, like, mean chemistry. I know it's nice to feel wanted, or let's say... focused on. But don't come at me with this whole 'I don't know what you're talking about'-bullshit! You, my friend, have finally found out what it's like to be me for a day, and you liked it!”
The red had not yet vanished completely from Iwaizumi's face, but he was still ready to roll his eyes again. “I missed the horde of crazy stalkers posting about my day on social media,” he said.
Oikawa's smirk grew a little wider still. “Oh!” he said, “About that!” He fished for his phone, which was charging on the nightstand, and opened the Oikawatch app. “It's about time we checked if that's true.”
He could hear Iwaizumi's breath catch, as the newest pictures on Oikawatch loaded. However, much to Oikawa's chagrin, Iwaizumi was not to be seen in a single one of them. Instead, there was Oikawa and Ushijima from behind, holding hands, Oikawa and Ushijima coming out of the photobooth, laughing, Ushijima buying Oikawa the biggest cotton candy in the whole park, and so on, and so on.
“For fuck's sake! I didn't know he could be a gentleman,” Oikawa muttered.
“How the fuck did you not know that?” Iwaizumi asked, taking the phone from Oikawa's hand. “Look at how he carried you out of that roller-coaster.”
“Huh? No, I didn't mean Ushi- uhm. Whatever. Forget I said anything.” Oikawa snatched his phone back and turned it off. “Let's just go to sleep, alright?”
“Uhm, no. First, I have to check something.”
Oikawa reacted too slowly. Before he realized what Iwaizumi was doing, Iwaizumi had snatched the fanny-pack off the floor and produced two pictures from it. One was the picture from the wooden roller-coaster, the other the strip they took at the photobooth.
“Ah!” Iwaizumi said, as if he finally understood something. “I'm starting to think the only one with serious date-vibes today were the two of you.” He waved the picture-strip in Oikawa's face, careful not to crinkle it.
Oikawa angrily reached for the pictures, but in vain. “This is so childish!” he complained. “You're behaving as if we were twelve! Maybe that's why you were awkwardly flirting like a twelve-year old all day long. You literally drank your brain away yesterday.”
“Awww, someone is taking this awfully serious,” Iwaizumi smirked. “What's so special about these pictures, huh?”
Despite the teasing lilt of Iwaizumi's voice, Oikawa suddenly felt the need to be honest. He didn't know how else to address this, and he really needed to share his feelings with Iwaizumi.”
“They scare me,” he blurted, watching Iwaizumi catch on after only a second and letting the smirk vanish from his face.
“What? Why?”
“I don't know!” Oikawa turned to lean his back against the wall and stared at the photos in Iwaizumi's hands, until they were handed to him while Iwaizumi settled down next to him in the same position. They really felt like children now.
“When I look at them...” Oikawa said, shrugging, “I... I feel something. Something strange.”
Iwaizumi took a while to ask the careful question, “You mean... like lo-”
“Of course not!” Oikawa spat. It was his turn to blush furiously. “We only just started dating. It's nothing quite so serious.”
“But it's something a little serious,” Iwaizumi said.
“No, it's not. It's just... strange. New. Uncharted territory.”
“Affection?” Iwaizumi offered. “But like... romantic affection, you know?”
“That's not new.” Oikawa sighed, letting his head roll onto Iwaizumi's shoulder. “I don't know. Thinking about it makes my head hurt.”
“Well, then don't think about it too hard,” Iwaizumi laughed. “Besides, who knows. Maybe it's nothing fancy anyway. Maybe it's just something you never thought you'd be able to feel towards Ushijima.”
“I never thought I'd be able to feel anything positive towards him, so that doesn't exactly narrow it down.”
“Trust,” Iwaizumi offered, hitting the nail on it's head with such nonchalant accuracy that it kept Oikawa up half the night thinking about it. “Maybe it's simply trust.”