Chapter Text
The winter is truly a cold and frightening time. The seemingly never ending darkness and dropping temperatures accent ones loneliness in the most painful ways. Despite his online popularity, Oikawa Tooru fell victim to the tricks of his own mind, forcing him to seek companionship in the most unlikely of places. That’s right - Grindr. When the thought first came to him, he pushed it away, disregarding it as a ridiculous idea. But then curiosity crept in, and the idea became more appealing by the second. In the end, he decided to set up a profile using a fake name - Daisuke - that way, if anyone recognises him, he will just pass for a catfish and won’t have to worry about his online reputation.
He’s been on the app for a few hours, and all the conversations he had so far were boring and led only to attempts at convincing him to hook up, which discouraged him from using the app at all. And yet he gave it one last try, swiping through countless matches, when suddenly he saw a familiar face. The information read “Kaito, 19, Tokyo”, but it was clearly Kageyama, and he had to be in Miyagi otherwise he wouldn’t be able to swipe right on Oikawa. Was it a catfish? Curious, once again, Oikawa swiped right eagerly. Almost immediately he was greeted with a reply.
Kaito: “Senpai? Fancy seeing you on here”
What was that supposed to mean? And since when does Kageyama call him “senpai”? This was truly concerning, Oikawa decided he should investigate further. Since Kageyama became a public figure recently, and he is fairly handsome, Oikawa wouldn’t be surprised if others used his pictures to lure guys in.
Daisuke: “Who are you calling senpai? Prove that you’re Kageyama Tobio if you want to carry on talking to me”
Kaito: “How do you want me to prove it?”
Daisuke: “Send a picture of you with two fingers up”
An attachment came through in less than a minute, and sure, on the picture was Kageyama, showing a peace sign with his tongue stuck out. It didn’t escape his attention that the boy was shirtless.
Kaito: “It’s your time to prove that you’re really the famous Oikawa Tooru, Daisuke-kun.”
Daisuke: “What do you want me to do?”
Kaito: “Take a picture with a fork in your mouth, laying in bed :p”
Was he kidding?
Kaito: “You have one minute, otherwise I will assume you just googled one”
Oikawa frantically scrambled through his kitchen for a fork, and ran back upstairs, throwing himself onto his bed, and quickly snapped a selfie, with the fork in his mouth. His hair was a mess from all the running, and a faint blush gave away the amount of exercise he had over the past thirty seconds.
In response he just got laughing emojis.
Kaito: “Who thought you would actually send me something this ridiculous”
Daisuke: “I hope you don’t intend on posting this anywhere, this should stay between us”
Kaito: “You’re awfully serious about this, huh? Don’t worry, your secret's safe with me”
Kaito: “So are you here for hookups or something? Should have expected that from you Oikawa-san”
Daisuke: “Did you not read my bio? Literally says no hookups”
Kaito: “Didn’t bother reading when I saw your face, didn’t assume it was you in the first place”
Daisuke: “How comes you’re in Miyagi? Shouldn’t you be in Tokyo right now?”
Kaito: “Got injured, couldn’t go”
Daisuke: “So instead you’re killing time by teasing boys on grindr?”
Kaito: “Yeah”
Oikawa paused for a second, unsure of what to reply with. Was that seriously what Kageyama was doing? Well, he was on grindr, so it was to be expected, but for some reason Oikawa couldn’t imagine his innocent kouhai exchanging lewd pictures with strangers online.
Kaito: “You know I was joking right? Did you not read my bio either?”
Daisuke: “Didn’t bother when I saw your face :p”
Kaito: “Can we talk on imessage instead? Your name on here really bothers me”
Oikawa agreed and they exchanged numbers. Before coming off of grindr for good, Oikawa checked “Kaitos’” bio, it read: “here for entertainment”. That only confused him further, wouldn’t that mean Kageyama was there to hookup?
They exchanged messages throughout the night, Oikawa asked innocent questions and got flirtatious replies most of the time. It amused him that Kageyama treated him so lightly now, and simultaneously surprised him that he didn’t mind at all. Somehow, he knew that they both became fairly vulnerable after finding each other on such a website, but felt all the better that instead of distancing themselves more they became closer. That night Oikawa fell asleep thinking about the selfie Kageyama sent him, he looked kind of cute.
Tobio-chan: “Do you wanna go out today?”
Oikawa reread the message many times, it was sent at 9am, and he opened it at 1pm. He panicked slightly when he realised he’s left it on seen for about five minutes now, trying to process why Kageyama would ask him that.
Oikawa: “Why?”, he finally replied.
Tobio-chan: “Thought you would be bored, so I wanted to take you out”
The wording threw Oikawa off. Did Tobio want to take him out… on a date? It seemed like the weirdest scenario that could possibly come out of this situation. They did talk for hours yesterday, and although Kageyama was clearly flirting with him, Oikawa didn’t think much of it.
Tobio-chan: “Don’t stress, I thought we could go and eat or something, nothing physical”
Came another text since Oikawa hasn’t replied for a while again. He didn’t even consider that Kageyama could have been asking about that. Although, now that he did mention it, it only stressed out Oikawa a bit more. And yet, he still wanted to go. It’s not like he had anything better to do, and he wanted to see how much Kageyama has changed since last time he saw him.
Oikawa: “I’m not stressing, what time do you want to meet then?”
Tobio-chan: “In an hour?”
Oikawa: “Damn, you’re in a hurry”
Tobio-chan: “Just wanna spend as much time with you as possible ;)”
What the hell? Since when is he so confident.
Oikawa confirmed their meeting and left the rest of messages from Tobio on seen. An hour was not enough time for him to get ready and reach their planned destination, he shouldn’t have agreed.
They agreed to meet by one of the most popular streets of Sendai. Oikawa arrived 20 minutes late, and kept making up excuses on the way. The truth was, he spent extra time on styling his hair, just to rub it in to Kageyama that he still looks better than him. He could see the younger setter waiting from afar.
Kageyama stood against a wall of a store, typing something on his phone. Oikawa swallowed hard, the closer he got, the more he realised that he might have lost the vanity war that he himself declared. Despite being his junior, Kageyama was taller than him now, by mere centimeters, but to Oikawa it was still a considerable difference. Over the years it seems that the boy also developed a sense of style, as the clothes he chose accented his good looks.
He didn’t realise that he was staring for too long, until he caught Kageyama staring back, his phone long gone.
“Hey, you look good. Is that why you’re so late?”, the boy teased straight away, and Oikawa gave him a disapproving look.
“I woke up like this, unlike you, I don’t have to put effort in to look stunning, Tobio-chan”, the brunette bit back, and they began walking along the street.
“Guess you got me there”, Kageyama smirked, giving Oikawa a side look. No come back? That made Oikawa feel guilty about being mean. Did Kageyama do this on purpose?
“So where are we going?”
“Lunch? Or in your case, breakfast?”
“Sure, we’re splitting the bill though, I’m not paying for your eight course meal”, Oikawa said, crossing his arms dramatically.
“I planned to pay for both of us, but if you wanna split that’s fine too”, once again, Kageyama smirked, driving the brunette insane. When did Kageyama become so smooth? And why did he look so handsome when he smiled?
“You changed”, Oikawa said, absentmindedly letting his thoughts slip. It was weird to see Kageyama without a permanent frown, in the past his face was always curled into a grimace, whether it was of displeasure or concentration.
“Everyone changes, you changed too, senpai”, Kageyama replied casually, not wasting his breath on an explanation. Instead he took Oikawa’s hand, intertwining their fingers and led him into a restaurant.
“Table for two?”, a waitress approached them, smiling a little too much. It made the brunette all too aware of the fact that Kageyama held his hand, she must have been laughing at them.
Kageyama gave her an affirmative and they were lead deeply into the restaurant, where finally around the corner they were seated in a private booth. The waitress said she will bring some water and left them, still smiling from ear to ear. Kageyama let go of his hand, so they could sit down across from each other.
“What was that?”, Oikawa had to ask. Holding hands wasn’t unpleasant, quite the opposite actually, and starved off physical contact for so long, Oikawa craved more. Which didn’t change the fact that what Kageyama just did was really weird and out of place, they just met five minutes ago.
“They always take couples to the back here for privacy, it’s nicer to have a whole booth just for us”, the setter said, not taking his eyes off of the menu he was reading.
“And how do you know that?”, Oikawa knew he must have a really smug expression on right now, but didn’t care much.
“Take a guess”, Kageyama looked up at him, his lips curling into a smile.
“So you bring all the boys here then?”, the brunette wasn’t letting go, not even bothering to look at the menu. He came to this restaurant in the past with his family and already knew that he will order his usual.
“Perhaps”, Kageyama replied, as the waitress set water on their table. She politely said that she will be back in a second to take their orders.
“Never thought you will grow up to be such a player, Tobio-chan”, Oikawa teased.
“Fine, fine, I only know this because Hinata told me he comes here with Yachi and always gets a table at the back because they are a couple”, the setter gave up on keeping up his bad-boy act.
“I knew you didn’t change that much”, the brunette tried to muffle his chuckle with the sleeve of his jumper.
The waitress took their orders, and they caught up on each others lives while waiting for their food. Turns out Kageyama got injured quite badly during a practice match, and still had issues with his knee, although it was mostly healed now. Oikawa talked about his university, and the reason he was now doing a physics degree instead of pursuing his volleyball career.
They ate in silence, which was sometimes interrupted by Kageyama’s phone going off when he received messages.
“You can reply, Mr. Popular”, Oikawa teased, indicating the phone with his chin.
“It’s nothing important”, Kageyama replied in between bites.
“Are you saying I’m more important, Tobio-chan? Stop, or I will fall for you”, he snickered at his own joke.
“That’s what I’m hoping for”, the setter replied, without missing a beat. How can he deadpan embarrassing things like this?
“We all have wild, unattainable dreams”, Oikawa stuck his tongue out childishly, unsure of how to reply otherwise. He couldn’t tell whether the setter was being serious, or if he was joking again.
When they finished, they kept began reminiscing high-school years, which for Kageyama wasn’t really that long ago. It was nice to share different points of views of the same events, find out more about the Karasuno squad and their lives now. Oikawa mentioned that he’s still in touch with Iwaizumi, although they rarely meet nowadays which is a shame.
He didn’t realise when the time passed, talking to Kageyama felt so effortless, although Oikawa would never expect that to be the case. Before he knew it, two hours passed, and they mutually came to a conclusion that they should be leaving.
“I thought we were splitting”, the brunette said, when Kageyama placed his credit card on the bill, letting the waitress know his method of payment.
“I will get this, you can get the next one.”
There was going to be a next one? Oikawa liked the sound of that.