"Remember when we first met?" Oikawa asked his best friend. Of course, Iwaizumi remembered.
"Yeah, I do. Man, I was so into reading. I didn't want anything to do with anyone, I had my books and that was all I needed," Iwaizumi said, remembering his youth. He missed reading. That was all he used to do.
"Of course, until I came along?"
"Hah! C'mon, we both know that's not true. I wouldn't talk to you, no matter how incessant you were that we go outside and play. Finally, one day, after your mom dropped you off, you came into my room holding a book. The same book I had been reading. And without even saying anything, you just sat down and started reading."
"Yeah, I wouldn't stop complaining to my mom about how you never talked to me, and she suggested that maybe I adapt to you, instead of expecting you to adapt to me. Little Oikawa was a few brain cells short, wasn't he?" Oikawa said with a laugh.
"And slowly, through talking about books, I learned that real life people actually weren't that bad. Or, at least, I had found one that wasn't," Iwaizumi said sweetly. "Sometimes I doubt that that was a valid conclusion, though."
"Hey!" Oikawa threw a shoe at his friend. They were sitting on Iwaizumi's extremely messy floor. They were supposed to be cleaning. See, when things got busy and stressful, Iwaizumi was especially prone to giving up on doing anything that wasn't necessary, which for him, included cleaning. So, every once in a while, Iwaizumi's mom would call Oikawa and ask him to come over, begging for him to try to motivate Iwaizumi to drag himself out of whatever he was doing and pick up some of the stuff on his floor. Honestly, Oikawa usually noticed himself before that had to go down. And whenever this happened, Oikawa ended up doing most of the cleaning.
Oikawa treated it as more of a cheering up session for Iwaizumi, that just came with a little tidying up.
Oikawa didn't know if these ruts his best friend would fall into had a lot to do with mental health, and Iwaizumi wasn't the type to talk about that kind of thing, so Oikawa just did his best to help with whatever he could. So, finally, he got up to do some real cleaning.
"Why do you ask?" Iwaizumi said.
"Oh, I was just going through some drawers yesterday and I found a couple of the books we read together. It brought back good memories," Oikawa said, shelving some of Iwaizumi's own books.
Iwaizumi looked at the ground. He felt bad whenever Oikawa had to come over to clean. He used to always insist that he was fine with the mess, that he didn't mind, but his mom wouldn't have it and neither would Oikawa. It did make him feel better when he wasn't kicking through clothes and shoes to get to his desk or his bed, but it never really helped anything in the long run. Things would just get bad again. They always did.
But having Oikawa around helped a little bit.
"Damn, I wish I still had time to read as much as I used to. These days, it's hard to get in more than a chapter each day," Iwaizumi said, swallowing his pride.
"You're telling me. I haven't read a book for fun in so long. To be fair, I was never all that into reading, I mostly just did it so you would talk to me," Oikawa says with an embarrassed look on his face.
"Hey, we could always go back to that. I bet if I didn't talk to you unless you read would be a good motivator."
"Hey now, we both know that you can't go more than a day without talking to me," Oikawa said playfully, sticking his tongue out at Iwaizumi. But, he was right. Iwaizumi didn't think that he could go very long without at least texting Oikawa. Oikawa was his rock, the one person that made him feel at home wherever he was.
"Yeah, yeah whatever. It's the same for the both of us. 100% co-dependent," Iwaizumi said matter-of-factly.
"Fair enough," Oikawa agreed, plopping down next to his friend. Neither of them had much to say after that, so they just sat in comfortable silence, with Oikawa's head on Iwaizumi's shoulder in a now somewhat clean room.
"Hajime?"
"Tooru?"
"I think you might be the most important person in my life." Iwaizumi paused before responding, only to find Oikawa's hand and interlock his own fingers with those of the other boy.
"I think you're the most important person in my life, too. I mean, who else would come clean my room?" At this, Oikawa sat up and look Iwaizumi in the eyes.
"No, I'm serious, Hajime. You're the one person who I can't imagine ever losing," Oikawa said earnestly. His holding gaze made Iwaizumi's heart beat a little faster.
"I'm serious, too. You do so much for me, and you're a far better friend than I have ever been and I honestly don't know what I would do without you or where I would be." Iwaizumi found himself itching to be connected to Oikawa again, to be touching him again.
"Friends? Is that all you think we are?" Iwaizumi was taken aback by the question. It was an honest question, not an accusatory one and not a condescending one. Oikawa wanted to know what he thought, and honestly, Iwaizumi hadn't really thought about it all that much. Oikawa had always just been such a central part of his life. He had never had anything to compare to him, none of their other friends even came close to this kind of bond.
And for the first time, Iwaizumi really thinks about the way he feels towards Oikawa. He thinks about the longing for some kind of physical connection and the sense of relief whenever Oikawa crosses a room to stand by his side. He thinks of the comfort he feels when Oikawa touches his arm and the feeling of complete and utter acceptance when he was around the other boy.
"Well, not exactly," Iwaizumi started. "It's like... you're the one person I know I could never live without, but I don't really know what that means. I wouldn't be hesitant to say that you're more than a friend, but..." He trailed off. He didn't know how to explain his feelings. He had never been good at it, so it's no surprise that he couldn't get words that made sense out.
"More than friends, huh?" Oikawa looks at him with a sideways smile. "I would agree with that statement." Iwaizumi scooted closer to Oikawa, taking his hand again. Their legs were tangled together haphazardly. Iwaizumi was close enough to feel the other boy's breath. He brought his eyes up to look into Oikawa's brown ones.
"I don't really know where that draws the line..." His eyes finally settled on Oikawa's lips. He leaned in a little farther, Oikawa seemingly gravitating towards him as well.
"Who's to say..." After just a moment of hesitation, Iwaizumi bridged the gap between them. When his lips finally connected with Oikawa's, well, it might be too much to say that all of his feelings finally made sense, but things definitely started to fall into place. It was a brief kiss, and they both pulled away to get a better look at each other. "Does it have to draw any lines?"
Iwaizumi's lips curved into a smile. This was what he had been waiting for for so long, this was when things finally began to fit together.
"I suppose it doesn't," he said, leaning in again, their bodies fitting together like the gears of a well-oiled machine. This time, the kiss lasted much longer, giving time for Iwaizumi to appreciate the feeling of longing he had so consistently been experiencing being fulfilled.
~
hey guys! i had the first half of this written for like 2 weeks and then forgot about it and today was the first time i've been on wattpad since quarantine and said, oh maybe i should finish this. sorry i haven't been updating! things have been super weird here, as it's been for all of you, i'm sure. i'm in online school, which has taken up all my time and motivation. it's really hard staying at home all the time, i'm going a little stir-crazy, but it's fine. i'm just glad my parents aren't being to strict about all this, i'm still allowed to go outside for walks and hang out with a few of my friends (only in outdoor settings, but it's okay because it's pretty warm here)
school is cancelled for the rest of the year, so our spring musical was cancelled, but i'm not feeling too bad about it. i feel really bad for our seniors, but that doesn't really do anyone any good
i've spent a lot of this quarantine time re-reading the percy jackson series, and can i just say, when cupid bullied nico di angelo into admitting he was gay, that was super fucked up like lmao ok rick
so, i might be on here a lot more, or a lot less. we'll just have to see
thanks for reading! -fm