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“Iwa-chan! Hand me my comb!”
“Get it yourself, lazy ass.”
It was at this point during training camp – late in the evening, after dinner but before lights out – when Oikawa would become incredibly lazy and demand Iwaizumi be his personal slave. Normally Iwaizumi would ignore him as best he could or delegate whatever inane request Oikawa demanded onto someone else. But this year, since they shared a room to themselves (a privilege held by the captain and vice captain), Iwaizumi would have to face a nagging Oikawa on his own.
“But you’re already standing!” Oikawa pestered.
“No.”
“Pleeeease.” Oikawa, sitting on his bed with his legs tucked underneath him, brought his clasped hands under his chin. He pouted his lips and widened his eyes, in that puppy dog look that worked on nearly everyone. Except Iwaizumi. Most of the time.
“Fine!” he grunted angrily, stomping into their shared bathroom. Iwaizumi knew Oikawa would just bother him incessantly until he did what Oikawa asked, so it was better just give in to his demands now.
Once in the bathroom, he rummaged around in Oikawa’s extensive bag of toiletries, which was mostly just hair care. Iwaizumi pushed bottle after bottle aside, but he couldn’t find a comb. The stupid thing must have fallen to the bottom.
He pulled out a few bottles and a brush when he noticed something that seemed out of place.
At the bottom of the bag, right next to the comb, was a skin colored tube with a black cap. Iwaizumi grabbed it, held it up to eye level, and frowned. It was…some kind of makeup. In bold black font, under the name of the brand, was the word “CONCEALER.”
Concealer. Iwaizumi didn’t actually know what that was, but the name kind of gave it away. It was probably some kind of face makeup, meant to hide pimples or something. Iwaizumi knew Oikawa toyed around with makeup from time to time, but as he inspected the tube, he realized it was almost empty, which meant Oikawa must have been using it regularly. He was probably using it every day - why else would he bring it to training camp?
He wondered what Oikawa was using it for - to cover up pimples? Sunburn? Or maybe Oikawa was trying to hide something else…and Iwaizumi had a sneaking suspicion of what it was.
Overtaken by his suspicion, Iwaizumi forgot about the comb and strode back into their room, marching right up to Oikawa.
“Oi. Shittykawa. What’s this?” Iwaizumi shoved the skin colored tube in Oikawa’s face.
Oikawa’s eyes went wide when he saw what Iwazumi held between his fingers. But his surprise quickly faded into a carefree smile. “That? Ha – that’s nothing, Iwa-chan.”
“Nothing?” Iwaizumi asked incredulously.
“Just a little concealer to hide my pimples. Ah, you’ve discovered my secret! Even I get them,” Oikawa laughed. His eyes flitted nervously between the tube of concealer and the floor.
“You’re lying,” Iwaizumi stated. “You think I don’t know you well enough to tell when you’re lying?”
Oikawa instantly dropped his fake smile. “Look, it’s just makeup, no need to get mad about it,” he said coldly.
“Oikawa – ”
“I told you, it’s just for zits, okay?!” Oikawa lashed out, standing up angrily. His hands were clenched into tight fists.
Iwaizumi frowned. “Liar,” he muttered.
“Hey - !”
Ignoring Oikawa’s protests, Iwaizumi took a step closer to him, placing his hands on either side of Oikawa’s face. Oikawa froze the moment Iwazumi touched him, his mouth dropping slightly open and eyes widening.
Iwaizumi took advantage of Oikawa’s moment of silence to narrow his eyes and inspect his friend’s face. He glanced over Oikawa’s flawless, milky skin, although from this close, he could make out the tiny pores in his skin, the light strands of hair that lined the sides of his face. Ignoring the warm feeling in his chest, Iwaizumi peered closely at the skin under Oikawa’s eyes – he could see now that it was a slightly different shade than the rest of his skin, that it gleamed a little differently in the artificial light.
Iwaizumi felt a tightness in his chest as he ran the pads of his thumbs under Oikawa’s eyes. Color melted away under his fingers, revealing large, dark circles under Oikawa’s watering eyes.
“Oikawa…” So Iwaizumi’s suspicions were sound. The concealer was hiding Oikawa’s dark circles.
It was always pretty obvious when Oikawa wasn’t taking care of himself, when he was getting carried away with school or volleyball, because his looks reflected his health. Because of that, Iwaizumi always knew when he had to kick Oikawa back into shape, making sure he wasn’t staying up too late or forgetting to eat. He’s get thinner, paler, and use more product in his hair. And he always had horrible, dark circles. It was never pretty when Oikawa snapped, but Iwaizumi hadn’t seen him look this bad in a long time.
He should’ve known Oikawa was going through one of his phases again; after suffering defeat yet again from Shiratorizawa, there was no way Oikawa would rest as long as they still had a chance at the Spring Tournament. And Oikawa probably knew that Iwaizumi was waiting for the moment when he snapped.
“Did you…try and hide this from me?” he asked as carefully as he could.
Oikawa looked down guiltily, his cheeks turning red and hot under Iwaizumi’s hands. Iwaizumi stepped back quickly. It had been so comfortable, so natural to hold Oikawa’s face in his hands, that he’d forgotten how strange it really was.
Iwaizumi gulped, as if trying to swallow his feelings, so he could focus at the matter at hand. “Oikawa,” he said sternly, waiting for the other boy to answer him.
Oikawa sighed. “It wasn’t just you. My parents, the team, too…but I guess it was mostly for you.” Oikawa jutted out his lip in a pout, “You’re the worst out of all of them.”
Iwaizumi smiled faintly. “Good.”
“So mean, Iwa-chan.”
Even as Oikawa teased him, he could hear the exhaustion in Oikawa’s voice. He noticed the droop of Oikawa’s eyelids, how red his eyes really were. Iwaizumi could only imagine how the fatigue drained Oikawa physically.
“What have you been doing this whole time?” he asked. “Staying up watching videos? Practicing serves after everyone leaves? Reading those strategy books again?”
“Er…all of the above?” Oikawa scratched the back of his neck.
“Dumbass. How much sleep have you been getting?”
“…”
“When was the last time you ate?”
“Dinner.”
“Liar. I know you weren’t there.”
“Look, I’m not hungry – ”
Iwaizumi slapped his hand over Oikawa’s mouth before he could say anything else. “Doesn’t matter. You have to eat something; you know you do.”
Iwaizumi pushed Oikawa into his bed. He toppled over like a twig in the wind. “Iwa-chan!”
“Lie down. I’m going to get you something. I think I have some protein bars here somewhere…” After rummaging through his bag, he tossed two bars at Oikawa.
“It’s bad to eat at night,” Oikawa commented, eyeing the bars with a level of disgust.
“Doesn’t matter. You’ve barely eaten at all today, so you can’t complain.”
“Hmph.” Despite his protests, Oikawa ripped the wrappers off the bars and ate them fervently.
When he was done, he stood up, threw the wrappers away, and started pacing around his bed.
Iwaizumi frowned. “I hope you’re planning on sleeping now.”
“…I don’t want to sleep~” Oikawa sang.
Iwaizumi rolled his eyes. “Yes you do.”
“But – but I – ”
“Look,” Iwaizumi interrupted, growing tired of Oikawa’s protests. “I’ll lie down with you, okay? Then will you please rest?”
It was something they used to do as children. They often had sleepovers, and whenever Oikawa had a nightmare, he’d climb into Iwaizumi’s bed and they’d curl up together. They both slept better that way.
To Iwaizumi’s relief, Oikawa nodded. He finally sat down on his bed, lay down on his back, and patted the place beside him.
Iwaizumi turned off the lights in their room and settled down next to Oikawa.
“We haven’t done this in a long time,” Oikawa whispered.
“We’re the only ones in the room. Why are you whispering.”
“Shhhh!” Oikawa turned over on his side to face Iwaizumi and put a finger on Iwaizumi’s lips. Oikawa whispered close to his face so that he could feel Oikawa’s breath on his cheeks. “Iwa-chan, everyone knows that once that lights go out, you have to whisper. That’s the rule.”
Iwaizumi snorted. “Like I give a shit,” he whispered. Not because Oikawa insisted , he told himself. He just felt like whispering now.
Oikawa giggled. Then they lay in silence for a few moments, while Iwaizumi tried to get comfortable.
After turning on each side, his back, and his stomach, Iwaizumi rolled over next to Oikawa and wrapped his arms around him.
Oikawa seized up beneath him. Had he gone too far? He totally went too far. Iwaizumi had only done what had felt natural, but this was pushing the lines of their friendship pretty far, and Oikawa obviously wasn’t comfortable with it.
A blush spread from Iwaizumi’s head to his toes, and he was thankful it was too dark for Oikawa to see him. He was about to remove his arms when Oikawa’s hand darted up to grab his hand. He shifted closer to Iwaizumi, and finally relaxed against Iwaizumi’s chest, all without letting go of his hand.
They lay like that for a long time before Oikawa spoke up again.
“Iwa-chan?” Oikawa’s voice sounded through his whole body. Iwaizumi could feel his voice through his chest, pressed up against Oikawa’s back.
He placed his forehead between Oikawa’s shoulder blades and mumbled, “Go to sleep.”
“Why do you bug me about this stuff?” Oikawa asked anyway. “You don’t have to…and I know it only makes you angry.”
Iwaizumi always looked after Oikawa. He had ever since they were kids. It was one of the burdens of being Oikawa’s friend – keeping him from pushing himself too hard so he could play another day had always been Iwaizumi’s job, and most of the time, he didn’t think twice about it. But he knew that wasn’t what Oikawa was asking. “Because I care about you, dumbass. That’s why. And I’m only angry because I don’t like to see you hurting yourself like this.”
Oikawa giggled, “I knew Iwa-chan had a soft side under all that hard muscle!”
“Shut up.”
Oikawa squeezed Iwaizumi’s hand tighter, pulling it closer against his chest. “But Iwa-chan – Hajime – ” Oikawa whispered seriously, “ - thank you.”
Iwaizumi hummed into the back of Oikawa’s neck. The blush he’d worked so hard to get rid of came back instantaneously. “You don’t have to thank me. You’d do the same for me, right?”
“You know I would.”
Not much later, Iwaizumi felt the deep, even breathing that indicated his friend had fallen asleep.
He found himself leaning forward, and lightly kissing the back of Oikawa’s neck. “Goodnight, Tooru,” Iwaizumi whispered against his skin. “Please sleep well tonight.”