Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Maybe it’s not the highlight of Oikawa’s life that he’s making a convenience store run at two in the morning, but the place is open 24-7 and he desperately needs snacks, so surely it can’t be that bad.

Of course, spending the last ten minutes attempting to decide between seaweed- or wasabi-flavored chips when he should have been in bed over an hour ago probably won’t do him many favors tomorrow at school, much less at practice. What Iwa-chan doesn’t seem to understand, though, is the importance of knowing the enemy, even if that means watching and re-watching footage of their games into the early hours of the morning; knowing how they play means knowing how to counter them, and countering is key if he’s going to win. Not sleeping until four in the morning may not exactly be the world’s greatest sleep schedule, but as far as Oikawa’s concerned, if there’s time to spare, then there’s time to prepare.

And right now, preparing necessitates the purchase of food that will keep him awake, and the fact that all the flavors seem to be blurring together by this point is not helping his progress. Oikawa lets out a huff, closes his eyes, and reaches out with the intent to purchase the first bag he grabs. Except, as it turns out, it is much harder to get a grip on something that you can’t see, and the clatter of falling metallic bags echoing throughout the empty store is enough to get him to immediately turn on his heel with the plan of leaving now.

“Ah!”

Oikawa probably shouldn’t have turned around, and yet he does just that; he turns, and is immediately greeted by a smile far too sunny for this time of night. His brain supplies the word refreshing before he even registers he’s already nicknamed him as such, and he suddenly feels very aware of the fact that he’s currently surrounded by fallen chip bags in the middle of an empty convenience store at 2 a.m.

Definitely not his highlighting moment. Oikawa returns the smile nonetheless, even as Mr. Refreshing’s actual name--he knows he’s number two for Karasuno, the setter not nearly as talented as Tobio-chan but has a strange sort of steadiness to him that could possibly make him a threat--entirely fails to come to mind. Souga-something. Maybe.

“Oikawa! Fancy seeing you here!” And there’s that smile again, like he’s genuinely please to have come across Oikawa at 2 a.m. in a 24-7 convenience store populated by no one other than a very sleepy looking clerk. “Are you having trouble sleeping too?”

Oikawa blinks and notices Mr. Refreshing is gesturing to him with his basket, which seems to be mostly filled with instant ramen, extra-spicy. He blinks again, and flashes his widest smile, which Mr. Refreshing doesn’t even bat an eye at.

“Nope!” Oikawa chirps. “I was planning on a late night, I just ran out of snacks is all!”

Mr. Refreshing hums, tilting his head to the side, his hair brushing up against his beauty mark. “Is that so? Don’t you have a game coming up soon?”

Of all the replies Oikawa had been expecting, including insult at having his polite conversation being shut down, or maybe a chastisement of his nocturnal habits--he does look like someone prone to lecturing--that was not particularly one of them. Oikawa can’t quite prevent his grin from tightening a bit at the corners, but if Mr. Refreshing notices at all, his own smile certainly does not dim in the slightest.

“Oho, is Karasuno attempting to keep tabs on me now? I should make sure to watch my back!” he laughs, somewhat humorlessly. Mr. Refreshing hums again.

“It’s always good to keep track of you opponents,” he says mildly, and then shoots him another startlingly sunny grin that Oikawa can only stare at because who the hell is that genuinely cheerful over anything, much less declaring rivalry, at a convenience store at two in the morning? “You never know who next opponent is going to be!”

“Oh? You say that like you expect to have a chance to come up against us again,” Oikawa manages to respond, quite smoothly in his opinion, and for the first time, there’s a break in Mr. Refreshing’s expression. Except rather than backing down, he instead seems more fired up, and Oikawa’s starting to understand just how affective this guy’s reenergizing abilities really are. He doesn't think he's felt this truly interested in a person since he first met Iwa-chan when they were three, and he refuses to admit how more than a little unsettling the thought is, especially considering the potential problem this guy could be.

“Well unless you’re planning to lose at some point, I don’t see why that’s such a strange thought! After all, we're aiming to win.” The grin he offers this time is downright competitive, and Oikawa’s heart has the audacity to skip a beat. “Ah! But in any case,” he adds, his entire demeanor suddenly snapping back into his unruffled disposition from before, and Oikawa barely has time to do a double take. “It can’t be good for you to be staying up so late if you have a game coming up! Sleep is an important part of training, and you’re not going to be doing your teammates any favors if you’re falling asleep on the court!”

There's the lecture he was expecting. He sounds like Iwa-chan, if Iwa-chan actually had some tact, and the half-smile tugging at Oikawa’s lips is by no means intentional, which for Oikawa is a very strange thought.

“True, true, Mr. Refreshing,” he says, and decides to take victory that the guy's eyebrows quirk at the nickname. “But what you forget is that I’m still lacking in my late-night snack, and I can’t possibly sleep without it!” He gestures to the shelf with chips, only to remember they’re all still on the floor.

“Well,” Mr. Refreshing says, thankfully not laughing even as he looks distinctly amused. “If you’re looking for a good chip flavor, I’d personally recommend wasabi.” He scans the pile of abandoned chip bags before picking one out, and hands it over to Oikawa with a grin. “Here! You should also probably clean those up, you don’t want to give the poor clerk any more of a late night than he already has.”

“Mm,” Oikawa says vaguely, because he’s planning on escaping from here as soon as he possibly can and get far, far away from this guy’s disarmingly honest cheer. “Thank you! Mr.--”

“Sugawara Koushi! You can call me Suga,” Suga interrupts before Oikawa can complete the name, and this time Oikawa manages a smile to match Suga’s own.

“Suga-chan!” Oikawa promptly parrots, perhaps a little more annoyingly than necessary, but Suga merely continues to smile.

“I can’t guarantee I’ll respond to that,” he says cheerfully and without a hint of insult, and the strange twist in Oikawa's gut leads him to decide right then and there that he has no idea how this guy works, and isn’t sure he wants to. “In any case, it was nice bumping into you! I should probably be heading home--speaking of sleep, it’s probably something I could use some too.” He gives an apologetic smile that is almost too sincere for Oikawa to handle, and it takes everything he has to return it. For the first time in a long time, 2 a.m. is way too late to be dealing with this.

“See you around, Suga-chan! Maybe next time we’ll meet again on the court,” he calls after Suga, and wishes it sounded as ironic as he had intended it to be. Suga smiles once more, still as open as ever, and waves before heading over to the check-out. Oikawa can only stare after him as he leaves, looks down at the bags of chips still scattered on the ground.

He makes it about five steps before spinning back around and gathering as many of the bags in his arms as he can. And so he marches to the check-out, in hopes that by the time he’s finished re-watching the Karasuno versus Aobajousai game he’ll have forgotten which one was recommending by the unfairly refreshing Suga-chan, and that by then the entirely unnecessary blush burning at his cheeks will have gone away for good.

Highlighting moment be damned, Oikawa is determined to never have to face that kind of disturbingly unerring positivity ever again. No matter how pretty, or interesting, or potentially fun it could be to see if he could drag anything other than a smile out of him. That kind of fraternization with the enemy will only end badly, with smiles far more sincere than his own that no man should be allowed to make.

Oikawa huffs out another breath as he steps out into the early morning air, the world pitch black save for the store behind him and the streetlight up ahead. He wonders which way Suga went, and then turns on heel in what he hopes is the opposite direction and hurries home, ignoring the fact that Suga's last, unnecessarily bright grin is still lingering in the back of his brain.

Chapter Text

Of the few things Suga knows about Oikawa, he knows that he’s competitive, he knows that he’s flashy, and he knows he has a determination to win that rivals even Hinata’s. He also knows he's someone prone to provocation, who apparently goes on late-night snack runs frequently enough that it's not strange at all, and that his sense of competition is just as present off the court as it is on. He's a talented setter, even with his flashiness, and Suga is sure he could learn a thing or two from him if ever given the chance--and he is in equal parts sure that Oikawa would never agree to such a thing.

He's not someone Suga would particularly expect to get along with, much less want to, and yet, now having talked with him for the first time off the court, he finds he almost wants to do it more.

Of course, if it were possible, he would have preferred an alternate second meeting to this. As if running into him at the convenience store the other day hadn’t been awkward enough, Suga now finds himself doing everything he can to not be shoved up against Oikawa on a very crowded train, praying it will get to his stop soon before even more people come on and the proximity he’s currently sharing with Oikawa gets even worse.

It had been a shock to see him as the wave of people Suga had been a part of had shoved him right up against Oikawa’s side. The moment certainly hadn’t been helped by the fact that Oikawa had just stared at him with a blank smile before it brightened into something--not quite sincere, but certainly less uninviting. Still, Suga hates to stand around in silence, so when it becomes clear Oikawa isn’t going to say anything, Suga figures the polite thing is to take initiative and at least say hi.

“Hello, Oikawa! I hadn’t expected to see you again so soon,” Suga says with a friendly smile. It apparently takes Oikawa a moment to process the gesture, but at the very least he returns the grin, if not the greeting.

“I didn’t know you took this line, Suga-chan!” he returns, sounding plenty cheerful, but Suga can hear the underlying question.

“I don’t usually,” he answers. “I was running an errand for my grandmother this morning, and ended up running a bit later than I had planned, so, the train!” He gestures as best he can in the cramped space, and luckily manages to not hit anyone, which certainly would not have made things any better than they are now.

Oikawa gives a kind of jerky nod, although that might have been due to the sway of the train, and hums an acknowledgement that Suga feels more than hears. He desperately wishes he had space to step back.

“Er,” Suga blurts before he’s even thought what to follow it up with; unfortunately, it gets Oikawa’s attention, and the fact that his smile is back to its odd blankness from before does not particularly help. “I’m sorry if I came off as rude at all the last time we met,” he finally settles on, because to be fair he does feel a little embarrassed by his behavior in the convenience store. Normally it isn’t until he gets a chance to be on the court he lets himself get fired up like that. Oikawa gives him a vaguely startled look, and Suga suddenly wonders if, rather than get things off on the wrong foot, he simply didn’t leave that much of an impression on Oikawa’s mind.

He isn’t really sure how to feel about that. He smiles kindly nonetheless, because at least that means this is a potential second chance at getting along; no harm could come of that, after all. “It was something of a surprise to see you there,” he continues, “although I suppose that’s becoming a bit of a pattern now, huh?” He grins again and is pleased Oikawa returns it.

“It is certainly a coincidence!”

When it becomes clear Oikawa isn’t going to expand beyond that, Suga sighs, but figures it can’t hurt to push it one last time. There’s still some time before his stop, after all. “In any case, I’m glad we got the chance to talk again!” Suga can feel Oikawa hum again, and he only barely holds back another sigh. “I suppose it would be a little strange to ask if we could be friends?”

The look that crosses Oikawa’s face isn’t angry, precisely, but there is a certain shock that pretty much answers that for him. In fact, even though he can’t help but feel a little disappointed, he’s mildly grateful that before Oikawa can say anything, the train screeches to a halt, the crowd surges forward, and Suga loses his grip on his bag as his nose smashes into Oikawa’s shoulder.

“Oh God, I’m so sorry,” Suga immediately says; there doesn’t seem to be blood, which means things could be worse, but his nose is tinged with pain and he’s sure his face is bright red. “Are you okay, I didn’t mean to--oh shoot, this is my stop, I’m sorry--” Suga reaches blindly behind Oikawa for his bag, and as soon as he gets a grip he starts weaving his way towards the exit. “I’ll see you around!”

As soon as he makes it outside, Suga pauses to take a much needed breather before rushing off to school. That was not a interaction he particularly wants to reflect back on ever again, but at least he tried. Besides which, at the very least, like he figured, he surely couldn’t have made things any worse.

***

Suga makes it to the changing room just in time, although the last few team members are finishing up changing into their uniforms as Suga tosses his bag onto the bench and hastily opens his locker. Daichi catches his eye with a raised eyebrow as Suga goes to yank his shirt off, and he grins sheepishly.

“I had to take the train today,” he offers as explanation, and Daichi nods in understanding and bends back over to finish lacing up his shoe.

“Do you normally not take the train, Suga-san?” Hinata asks, already bouncing around and ready to go.

“I don’t! I had an errand I needed to run before practice though, so I ended up having to take--”

Suga stops as he reaches towards his bag to grab his gym uniform, only to realize that this isn’t his bag. A vague feeling of dread creeps over him as he slowly opens the bag, hoping beyond hope that he’s just forgotten what his bag has looked like for three years, that he hasn’t made a mistake, that everything’s fine.

What he pulls out is far too big for him. And also white.

Perhaps the most damning evidence is the sprawling Aobajousai across of the jacket he’s now holding in his hands, as well as the large number one on the shirt. Suga barely resists the urge to bang his head against the locker.

“Suga...” he hears Daichi somewhere off to his side, and he very carefully does not meet his eye. “Is there something you need to tell us?”

“Er--”

“Is that--” Kageyama starts, only to cut himself off, looking vaguely mortified. Hinata glances at him, clearly confused.

“What, what, what’s going on? What’s--Suga-san, you’re not changing teams are you!” Hinata suddenly cries out when he finally catches a glimpse of the white jacket Suga has yet to put down. Suga can’t help but laugh at that.

“No, no, of course not! This is actually--I happened to run into Oikawa on the train this morning, and just before my stop I dropped my bag, so I must have grabbed his by mistake when getting off. Ah! But that means he must have my bag! That’s not good--here, let me--” He starts to dig around in Oikawa’s bag, and Daichi makes a sudden noise.

“You cannot possibly be planning to wear that,” he blurts out, and Suga smacks him in the arm without even looking. He thinks he hears Kageyama let out a sigh of relief.

“Don’t be stupid, of course I’m not, I’m looking to see if his phone is in--here!” Suga triumphantly pulls out what must be Oikawa’s phone, fiddling with it a bit until he manages to get to the main screen. “Ahh, but if he has my bag that means he has my gym clothes as well, and I’ll need something for practice--”

“You can borrow my spare ones,” Daichi says, and Suga flashes him a grateful smile.

“Thanks! Then I’ll just go ahead and--oh.”

Oikawa’s phone lets out a cheery melody as the screen lights up with the message that there is one new mail, and according to the number it’s from Suga’s phone. Daichi glances over his shoulder as he moves towards the door.

“Looks like he beat you to the punch?” he asks, and Suga grins.

“Looks like!” He moves to open the new message, vaguely recognizing that it has an image attached, and hits OK.

The image attached to the mail, it turns out, is a picture of Oikawa in the Karasuno uniform--Suga’s uniform, to be exact, and his brain screeches to a halt. Oikawa has Suga’s phone held above his head, wearing Suga’s shirt and jacket and possibly shorts as he flashes a peace sign at the camera, with a face Suga can only assume is meant to be model-esque. His shoulders look much broader in Suga’s uniform than Suga’s ever did, and the only rational thought he’s capable of for an embarrassingly long minute is, I hope he doesn’t stretch the shirt out.

“Suga-san?”

Suga jerks away from the image to see Hinata and Kageyama staring at him concernedly, and Suga hastily offers them a reassuring smile that only seems to work on Hinata.

“Well, he definitely has my stuff!” he says cheerfully, and when neither of them move to leave, even Daichi still hanging at the door, he hurriedly waves them. “Don’t worry, you don’t have to wait around for me! I’ll just need to figure out a couple of things to make sure I get my stuff back.” He offers another grin until Daichi lets out a defeated sigh.

“I have to go to my regular locker to get my spare gym clothes, so I’ll be a minute, okay? C’mon, you two!” He ushers the two freshmen out the door, Kageyama still glaring at the bag like it’s personally offended him, and Suga lets out a small sigh of relief once they’re all out the door, glancing down at the mail again and this time remembering to scroll down to the message underneath.

seeing as youve taken my uniform hostage, it only seems fair that i kidnap yours in return!! (｡+･`ω･´) i must say suga-chan, after an offer a friendship that doesnt seem like a very nice thing to do!!! ヽ(´□｀。)ﾉ

Suga stares at the message for a beat longer than he probably should before scrolling back up to the picture, where Oikawa continues to be in his clothes:  he doesn’t know if it’s supposed to be a challenge or a truce, but he feels oddly happy, and the idea of how to respond is too stuck in his head to not do.

He glances back down at Oikawa’s bag. He should have time to throw the uniform on and off before Daichi comes back. No one would have to be the wiser.

Deciding it would be too much of an issue to bother with the pants, Suga tosses his own shirt to the side in favor of Oikawa’s shirt and jacket, and after fiddling with Oikawa’s phone a bit more until he finds the camera, he holds it up and smiles, flashing a peace sign of his own. Oikawa’s clothes are far too big for him, sagging around the shoulders and pooling at his wrists, but he goes to type out a quick message before he’ll bother changing back.

I’m so sorry, I certainly didn’t mean to kidnap your bag! ๑•́ㅿ•̀๑) I suppose we’ll have to arrange some kind of hostage exchange, then, because I really do need my stuff back, and I’m sure you need yours as well! (๑•﹏•) Is there a time we could meet up that would be good for you?(๑･ᴗ･̥)

Suga is about halfway through undressing once more when Daichi walks back in the room; he glances at the phone on the bench, and then at Suga still in Oikawa’s shirt, and judging by the clearly disturbed look that passes over his face, he’s put two-and-two together.

“He did it first,” he offers with an abashed grin, and Daichi somehow manages to look even more disturbed.

“Suga, please tell me you’re not trying to make nice with Oikawa,” he says weakly as he hands Suga over his gym clothes.

“I’m not trying to make nice with Oikawa,” Suga dutifully echoes back, and he entirely fails to hold back a grin at Daichi’s skeptical look. “In my defense, I’m not sure if he’s particularly interested in making nice with me yet.”

Daichi just shakes his head and moves back towards the door once more. “Suga, I know you have a habit of picking on people, but please for the love of God could find a target that’s less...Oikawa?” Suga blinks in confusion.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Daichi? I’m perfectly nice, Daichi!” he calls out after him as Daichi makes a swift escape out the door, and can’t help but laugh a little when Daichi picks up the pace at Suga shouting his name.

Oikawa’s phone lights up again with a new message, and when Suga picks it back up, he notices this time there’s no image included. In fact, the entire mail displays a distinct lack of dramatics, simply saying, tmrw afterschool is fine. Suga frowns slightly, but replies with a quick, Sounds good! Do you have a location in mind? before he properly pulls off Oikawa’s shirt and carefully folds it back into Oikawa’s bag. He should remember to wash it before he returns it tomorrow.

And that means he’s going to see Oikawa again, and soon. That’s a lot of Oikawa in one week, especially considering they’ve never talked before this, but Suga is willing to give it another shot. He hasn’t quite pinpointed what it is about Oikawa that makes him far more prone to responding like this than he usually does, although he's more than willing to let it play out, as strange as that willingness seems. Whether or not trying to piece apart what makes Oikawa tick will be worth it, Suga isn’t sure just yet, but if the worst thing Oikawa is going to do is steal his clothes, then maybe the third time will be the charm.

Chapter Text

“Suga-chan! Over here!”

Oikawa cheerfully holds up Suga’s bag as soon as he’s within Suga’s line of sight--they ended up deciding to meet at the train station out of convenience for Oikawa, although it means another roundabout trip for Suga, this time from school to his home. He doesn’t mind, to be fair, although the extra trip means he’ll be a little short on allowance money this week.

“Here you go!” Oikawa says brightly as he practically shoves the bag onto Suga. Suga shifts Oikawa’s bag off his shoulder so he can take his own back, and then moves to hand Oikawa’s bag back to him with a smile.

“I’m sorry again for all the trouble,” Suga replies. “I made sure to wash everything, though! So it’s all clean--I figured it was the least I could do having inadvertently kidnapped your things.”

Oikawa simply smiles back and opens his bag to investigate. “What kind of soap did you use?”

“Just a generic kind, it was what my mom had in the laundry. Why?”

“Mm? Oh, it just smells different is all!” Oikawa wrinkles his nose and lets out a laugh; Suga has no idea how to respond, so he just continues to smile somewhat apologetically as Oikawa finishes his investigation and zips his bag back closed. “Well! I guess that’s that!” He promptly turns on heel and starts to walk away, and Suga can’t help but raise an eyebrow at that.

“Don’t you have a train you need to wait for?” he calls after Oikawa, and Oikawa freezes mid-step.

“What?”

“Isn’t that why we met here? I assumed it was because you had a train you needed to catch.”

Oikawa spins back around, bright smile back on his face. Suga raises his eyebrows a little higher. “Oh? Do you?” he asks lightly, and the fact that he’s clearly vying to leave for some reason makes Suga very much want to force him to stay.

“Well, I did have to take a train to get here!” he answers cheerfully. “I figured since I’m already here, I may as well take it back home to, have a bit of an extended walk as some good exercise.” He flexes a little as a joke and grins as Oikawa stares at him blankly for a moment.

“Can’t argue with that!” he finally says, and the fact that his smile now seems mildly strained only makes Suga grin a little wider. He should probably feel bad about this. He should also probably feel a little worried if the general tone of their previous interactions are anything to go by, but Oikawa slides up to sit next to him friendly enough, so maybe there is a chance here. “Guess I’m stuck here with you!”

“I wouldn’t want to force you,” Suga says kindly. Oikawa lets out another laugh.

“Oh, but you would!” he says plenty brightly, if not a little sharp. Suga once again isn’t entirely sure how to respond to that--he can’t quite tell if Oikawa is trying to tease him or get a rise out of him, so rather than try to decide he hums vaguely, since to be fair that isn’t exactly untrue. “Don’t worry, I won’t hold it against you! I’ve had plenty of people go to incredible lengths for the chance to talk with me, although stealing my things is certainly a new one!”

“Well like I said, I am sorry about that, I honestly didn’t mean to.” Suga offers another apologetic smile that Oikawa once again reflects back with a slightly tighter version of his own.

“Oho, not even denying it! Of course, I suppose that’s something I should have expected--after all, you certainly seemed ready to throw on my uniform, and with virtually no provocation. I can understand it, though!” he goes on lightly as Suga shoots him a mildly confused look. “I’m sure it must have been nice to be number one for a little while, huh!”

“I’m not really captain material,” Suga replies just as lightly, and Oikawa lets out let another laugh.

“True, true! The number isn’t everything, I suppose.” Oikawa actually looks thoughtful for a moment, before turning back to Suga with a much brighter grin than before. “It was Tobio-chan who took your spot away from you, wasn’t it?”

Suga pauses at that. “I was the regular setter before Kageyama joined the team, yes,” he settles on, and he can see Oikawa immediately latch onto it by the way his eyes suddenly gleam. He supposes he should have seen this coming.

“Ahh, you shouldn’t feel bad about it,” Oikawa says smoothly, apparently taking Suga’s early beat as some kind of hesitancy. “Tobio-chan does seem to have a bit of a habit doing that sort of thing! Still, it must hurt to have your spot taken away from you--at the very least that is one thing he never quite managed to do to me!”

“You are both very talented setters,” Suga freely admits. “I would honestly be a little surprised if either of you weren’t regulars.”

“My, Suga-chan, you shouldn’t sound so resigned! Although, you are a third year, right? Oh well, maybe you’ll be able to get away from him by college! It’s certainly what I’m banking on!” He looks distinctly bitter even as he continues to grin, and Suga wonders whether he’s actually trying to hide it or not. He decides it’s best to act like he didn’t notice it.

“I certainly don’t mean to sound resigned,” he says instead, because he honestly doesn’t. “Even if I’m not a regular, I still love being on the court, and I’m certainly going to welcome any chance I get to play--I’m sure you know the feeling!”

All right, so maybe that was a little aggressively polite. He’s not quite regretting having this conversation, but he’s getting the feeling Oikawa wants him to, if the way he’s clearly trying to  needle at insecurities is anything to go by. He frowns slightly, wondering if maybe it’s time to admit that Oikawa is not, in fact, open to playing nice, although, Suga admits to himself, it’s not entirely like he has been encouraging him to. He still isn’t sure what it is about Oikawa, but for some reason it’s surprisingly easy to get caught up in trying to keep up, and Suga isn’t entirely sure he dislikes it, even if Oikawa doesn’t seem to share quite the same sentiment.

Of course, that does bring up the question of why exactly Oikawa is letting Suga see what he can get out of him, if he’s so unwilling to let it be anything other than snide remarks. It can’t just be some form of competition like he has with Kageyama--after all, there shouldn’t be anything to win here.

“A setter denied the chance to play in his final year--what could be sadder?” Oikawa sighs dramatically, and Suga suddenly thinks he might have an insight after all. “Surely even you can admit to being a little jealous that your place was taken from you like that!” Oikawa leans forward slightly. “Aren’t you?”

“Jealous of Kageyama?”

“Of anyone who gets the chance to play! After all, a victory can’t mean much if you spend the entire game on the bench--ah, there, see, I’m right, aren’t I!” Oikawa gives another sharp grin at Suga’s inadvertent frown. “Let me make a guess here:  you’ve been so keen to talk to me, not just because of my good looks, but because I have something you can’t have, and you want it.” Suga makes no move to reply, and Oikawa’s grin grows even sharper. “So then, Suga-chan, what I’m curious about is what it is you’re hoping to get from me, hm? What exactly is it that you want?”

Any humor Oikawa may have been attempting to maintain has vanished in favor of a kind of smugness, and when Suga doesn’t answer right away, he looks downright triumphant, like he’s just proven something that surely only reinforces his apparently skewed view of competition. Suga attempts to convince himself to let the topic go for about two seconds, decides it isn’t worth it, and smacks Oikawa on the forehead.

Apparently the blow landed harder than Suga had intended, based on the way Oikawa flails back with a cry, but even the bemused stares the sound draws from the few other people at the train station isn’t enough to stop Suga from standing up and scowling at Oikawa with as much ferocity as he can muster.

“What was that for!” Oikawa practically wails, hands clutching his head.

“Just who exactly do you think I am?” Suga huffs, crossing his arms over his chest. “Honestly, trying so hard to get me to dislike you--I don’t suppose simply wanting to talk to you would be reason enough to do so.  Of course I would need some sort of underlying motive! Really, when you get down to it, more than me, Oikawa, I’m starting to wonder what it is you’re trying to do, since apparently you’re so convinced I’d want to use you for something.”

“But--”

“And in terms of your question, of course I envy Kageyama! I love being able to play in the game, I always have, even now that I’m not a starting player! But that doesn’t mean I’m going to try to drag him down in order to raise myself up, like you’re apparently suggesting. There’s no real rivalry in completely beating your opponents down anyway, much less your own teammates. What do you have to gain from that? The knowledge that you’re the best? Then what’s the point in competition if you have no one to aim for since you’re at the top? And besides which, you don’t have to be the best to win! That’s what the sport is all about--you understand there will always be someone better, you learn from your mistakes, and you keep trying until you’ve overcome the obstacle in front of you, and then you charge onto the next one and start the process over again! Right?”

Oikawa stares at him like he’s speaking another language, before he blurts, “So you do dislike me then!”

“Not at all!” Suga immediately replies, and Oikawa freezes, looking at him with wide, tear-filled eyes. “I think you’re childish and overly-suspicious, and that your sense of competition is clearly skewed, but I also think you’re an amazing setter and that regardless of your personality you have an amazing sense of trust with your team--I have a lot of time to observe, sitting on the bench and all.” Oikawa actually winces slightly at that, and Suga takes the opportunity to grin brightly at him. “And in any case, I do think it’s fun talking with you! It’s certainly different from anyone else I know, and I’d be more than happy to do it again--of course that doesn’t do me any good if you aren’t interested in liking me.” He puffs out his cheeks before letting out a sigh, and offering one more smile. “I don’t suppose that would be too much to ask?”

There’s a beat, and then Oikawa turns bright red, and Suga realizes he might have made a mistake.

Maybe Daichi was right. Maybe he does have a bit of a habit picking on people a little too much, particularly if it gets to the point of accidentally breaking down their defenses.

“Really?” he can’t help but ask. Oikawa opens his mouth but nothing comes out, and Suga can’t help but feel a little bad he’s apparently thrown off guard this badly.

“I mean, you don't have to--” he starts, but is swiftly interrupted by the rumble of an incoming train. Both he and Oikawa turn to watch it pull into the station, and Suga glances back down at Oikawa. “Is that yours?” he asks.

“It is!” Oikawa says perhaps a touch too loudly, and he practically leaps off the bench with smile firmly back on his face, although the tips of his ears still seem to be pink. “So sorry to have to cut this short, Suga-chan, but the train waits for no man, not even me!” He then turns on his heel and hastily boards, leaving Suga with his hand partway up in a half-attempt at a farewell and a very bemused feeling as to whether or not he could consider that a successful interaction.

Suga settles back down on the bench with a sigh. No matter what, the fair thing to do seems to be to leave the choice in Oikawa’s hands, so he supposes he’ll just have to wait and see.

Chapter Text

“Iwa-chan, I’m going to die.”

“Good,” Iwaizumi says, although the fact that Oikawa promptly lets out a high-pitched whine does nothing to compensate for the fact that Oikawa’s been trying to get him to respond for the past five minutes with a steadily increasing number of vague complaints.

“Iwa-chaaaan.”

“What,” he finally snaps, and Oikawa gives him a disgustingly pitiful look as he slumps against his desk.

“Iwa-chan, I’m having a crisis over here, the least you can do is not be as much of an emotionally stunted oaf like you normally are.”

“Say that again,” Iwaizumi growls, but Oikawa merely sighs.

“You remember Sugawara Koushi? Number two for Karasuno.”

Iwaizumi casts his mind back. “I think so. That’s their other setter, right? The one with the light-colored hair.”

“Right,” Oikawa confirms glumly. Iwaizumi waits for him to expand, but when he fails to do anything other than continue to mope, he puts down his textbook with a frustrated groan.

“Well? What did he do?”

Oikawa grumbles a bit before Iwaizumi lands a sharp kick at his desk, at which he lets out another long-suffering sigh. “Really Iwa-chan, have you no tact at all? I’m suffering here!”

“From what? Did he steal your lucky volleyball or something?"

Oikawa shoots him a look as if he’s the one being needlessly bratty in the situation. Iwaizumi simply glares right back. “He keeps talking to me.”

Iwaizumi raises an eyebrow. He knows Oikawa often has low standards for what gets under his skin, but even that seems rather petty. “That’s it?”

“Of course that’s not it! It’s--he’s--he keeps running into me, like Oh, what a coincidence!” he changes his voice to some squeaky assault on the ears in what Iwaizumi assumes is supposed to be some terrible impression of Sugawara. “And he’s just--he’s so friendly, like I mean, no one can really be that friendly, it would be exhausting."

“Or you’re just terrible,” Iwaizumi deadpans. Oikawa ignores him.

“And it’s only that, he’s so--it’s like he’s somehow always so composed and polite and I swear to God he never stops smiling and it’s weird--”

“He’s not an alien.”

“I wasn’t going to say he was!” Iwaizumi shoots Oikawa an incredulous look and Oikawa pouts right back. “This is serious, Iwa-chan, it’s like I can’t avoid him all of a sudden, and every time I try to get a read on him it’s somehow wrong, I don’t even know why, it just is, and he--he--I don’t get him, Iwa-chan. I don’t get him, and I think I want to.” To Iwaizumi’s surprise, Oikawa starts to turn a little red and he buries his face in his arms. “This is horrible, Iwa-chan. Horrible.” He rolls his head to the side, staring out the classroom window with an utterly dejected look on his face, and Iwaizumi is almost starting to agree. “Iwa-chan, I think I like him.”

He whispers it like it’s some kind of awful secret, and Iwaizumi blinks.

“So let me get this straight:  your problem is that you like a guy, who’s nice.”

“It’s worse than it sounds!” Oikawa immediately cries out. “Iwa-chan, you have to help me!”

“With what? Do you want to ask him out or something?”

Oikawa shoots him a look that is nothing short of horrified. Iwaizumi takes that as a no.

“Fine, then what about getting over him--”

“I’m trying! It’s just--I mean--look at this! Look!” Oikawa suddenly grabs his phone from his bag, presses a couple of buttons, and shoves it in Iwaizumi’s direction. Iwaizumi picks it up to see a picture of what is apparently Sugawara in the Aobajousai team jacket, and really if they’ve already gotten to that level then Iwaizumi seriously has no idea what Oikawa is complaining about.

“Why do you have this,” he asks flatly, and Oikawa lets out another whine.

“He stole my bag the other day, but that’s not the important part, are you even paying attention?”

Iwaizumi glances back down at the picture. He can see why Oikawa kept the it, regardless of his protests--it seems to have been a spur-of-the-moment shot, but there’s an easy nature to his smile and impressively genuine crinkle around the eyes that even gives Iwaizumi a moment of pause to just stare. Sugawara is apparently very photogenic.

“I mean who does that!” Oikawa gestures wildly towards the phone when Iwaizumi finally looks back up.

“You, apparently,” Iwaizumi answers bluntly as he flips over to Oikawa’s preceding picture of him in what he assumes to be Sugawara’s team uniform, his face twisted into some stupid expression Iwaizumi figures Oikawa thinks is attractive.

“That was as a joke, Iwa-chan, he wasn’t supposed to respond! Not like that!”

“What did you expect him to do?”

“I don’t know! Get embarrassed? Feel intimidated? Understand my greatness in comparison to him?”

“Right, okay, so let me get this straight.” Iwaizumi rubs at his temple with the palm of his hand. “So, you like him, but don’t want to, and you want him to like you--” Oikawa lets out a squawk of protest at that “--but also don’t want him to.”

“Well when you put it that way,” Oikawa starts, but Iwaizumi cuts him off with a sigh.

“Right.” He presses a few buttons until he’s able to bring up Sugawara’s contact info--aptly nicknamed Refreshing-kun, it seems--and opens up a new message.

“Iwa-chan, what are you doing?”

“Shut up,” Iwaizumi replies shortly, and taps out a quick message.

Please take Oikawa on a date so he’ll shut up about you already

As soon as he’s sent it, Iwaizumi realizes he should probably clarify that Oikawa has not, in fact, gone quite so far as to start referring to himself in third person, because as much as he doesn’t care about Oikawa’s image, lowering his chances of meeting with Sugawara is certainly not going to help the headache Iwaizumi already feel growing as Oikawa suddenly starts trying to lean over his desk to see what’s going on.

“Iwa-chan!” Oikawa leaps forward, looking thoroughly distraught, but Iwaizumi dodges his attempted grab for the phone and quickly adds another message, ignoring Oikawa’s cry of anguish.

This is Iwaizumi by the way

#4 for Aobajousai

“Iwa-chaaan, why would you do that, I told I didn’t want to do that!” Oikawa very nearly wails, still trying to grab his phone back as Iwaizumi holds it out of his reach. “Un-send it, un-send it!”

“That’s impossible to do, dumbass,” Iwaizumi retorts just as Oikawa’s phone lights up with a new message. He opens it up before Oikawa can even begin to protest.

Yes, I remember you! You and Oikawa have a great quick set together! ｡^‿^｡

(。･o･｡) If he’s interested in it, then I certainly don’t mind! Could you hand the phone back to Oikawa then, please? (๑･ᴗ･̥ )

He uses emoticons. No wonder Oikawa likes him. Iwaizumi passes the phone back to Oikawa, who shoots him a disgruntled look before checking the messages himself. There’s a pause before Oikawa types a quick message back, and Iwaizumi returns to his text book, ignoring the glare Oikawa levels him with until his phone lights up again. There’s another pause as Oikawa stares for a moment at whatever is on his screen, and then his head thuds against the desk and he shoves his phone in Iwaizumi’s direction again. Iwaizumi cocks an eyebrow but accepts the phone nonetheless, and scrolling past Oikawa’s short what message, he skims over Sugawara’s reply.

Hi! I feel like I owe you another apology--I certainly didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable at all the other day, and I’m certainly sorry if I did!
๑•́ㅿ•̀๑) So if you’d rather say no to this, I completely understand! That being said, if you would like to hang out again sometime, I would be more than happy to! ヾ(･ᴗ･｡) And don’t worry, we don’t have to call it a date if you’d rather not! After all, I’m afraid I might have been a little forward with all this, so I hope none of this is coming off as too strong! ᕙ(* •̀ ᗜ •́ *)ᕗ

Well then. It seems that if Oikawa can fake charm by riding off of his looks, then Sugawara is apparently genuinely charming. “Right, so I can see why you’re interested in the guy. What I don’t get is why the hell he would ever be interested in you.”

Oikawa just gives a muffled groan in response, so Iwaizumi opens up the phone to reply for him one more time.

Oikawa says yes

This is Iwaizumi again btw

“Did you say no?” Oikawa asks, still muffled against his desk.

“No.” He puts the phone back down next to Oikawa and picks his book up once more, and Oikawa lets out another whine.

“He’s so nice, Iwa-chan,” he says, and really only Oikawa could make that sound like it’s the worst thing in the world. “How can anyone actually, literally be that nice, like it must be awful. Also you’re awful, I can’t believe you did that.” Oikawa kicks at Iwaizumi under the desk until Iwaizumi glares at him.

“Yes, well, it wasn’t like you were doing anything, and now either he’ll come to his senses and dump you, or you’ll be a dumbass and dump him, and I’ll never have to hear about any of this ever again, thank God.”

“But what if it all goes horribly and it turns out he really is secretly evil, or he's after our team's secrets, or what if he really is that nice, I mean you don't understand, Iwa-chan, no one could ever possibly be that nice. Iwa-chan!"

“You’ll just have to find out on your date,” Iwaizumi says blandly, and Oikawa lets out one last groan of despair.

Chapter Text

About ten minutes into their not-a-date, Oikawa has decided that Suga is officially unteasable.

It’s not just the way that he manages to smile off any of Oikawa’s comments, or even the fact that whatever Oikawa tries to throw his way, he seems just as agree to sling right back--it’s the matter of how he seems so unaffected by it all, no matter what it is. And it’s not even that he just smiles and takes it--because he most certainly does not, and that may be the most confusing part--but it’s like none of it sticks. Oikawa can tease, poke, and prod as much as he wants, it seems, and Suga won’t hold a second of it against him.

Oikawa doesn’t get it, and he doesn’t like not getting it, and most definitely does not like getting teased back for it all. No matter how bright Suga’s grin is, or surprisingly loud his laugh is, or the fact that he apparently has dimples when he smile grows particularly wide.

Oikawa hadn’t meant to actually meet up with Suga anywhere, ever, regardless of Iwa-chan’s needlessly cruel interference. He had very firmly decided that this was something that could go nowhere good, not with the way Suga makes it unacceptably difficult to remain in control of where the situation goes, and especially not with the way that this has resulted in Oikawa somehow feeling like he’s lost to him every single time. And in having decided that, clearly the best course of action would be to never give Suga the chance to entertain these entirely unnecessary feelings ever again.

It’s not a crush. It’s never going to be a crush, not if Oikawa has anything to say about it. Of course, it is significantly more difficult to convince himself of this when sitting across the table from a seemingly eternally pleasant Suga, who apparently has the capability of remaining completely imperturbable even in the face of Oikawa’s most obnoxious behavior, and even when he’s doing it on purpose.

It had been Suga who suggested the coffee shop about halfway between their schools, where apparently their pastries are first-rate, and they have some kind of cinnamon coffee Suga highly recommends. And by the time they’d somehow gotten to coffee flavors, Oikawa found himself with an address and a time staring at him in his inbox, perfectly arranged around when his practice would end because of course Suga would take that into account, the bastard. He had even already been there when Oikawa purposely showed up early so that he could leave under the pretense that he didn’t like to wait, sitting at a neat little table by the window where he could very clearly see Oikawa standing frozen across the street, and waving to him with a bright smile on his face. Oikawa frowns and takes a sip of his drink.

“I don’t suppose you’re still suspecting me of attempting to steal secrets from you or something,” Suga says lightly over the edge of his own mug, and Oikawa gives more of a start than he’d care to admit.

“Of course not!” Oikawa grins perhaps a bit too wide as he quickly puts his drink down. It is quite good, some kind of specially made hot chocolate from Switzerland or something, and he feels a little mad at it for such. “Surely you have enough faith in me to believe I’ve moved past such a thing!”

Suga simply hums in response as he takes another sip, before he sets his mug down next to Oikawa’s. “Well that’s certainly nice to hear!” he says with a smile, and he sounds like he means it too. Oikawa firmly ignores the way his stomach twists at the thought. “I was almost starting to wonder if I’d have to worry about that every time we happen to meet.”

He says it kindly enough, but Oikawa thinks he can almost hear the underlying tease to the remark. He doesn’t like it. Not at all.

“Well in my defense, Suga-chan, I’ve yet to hear what exactly it is about me that seems to have so caught your eye.” He winks, and Suga raises an eyebrow, picking his mug back up to take a sip with a vaguely amused expression on his face. “I have plenty of charm points, to be sure! But I must say you have been less than forward about why you might be so interested in spending so much time with me!”

“I suppose simply wanting to enjoy some company still isn’t enough?” Suga asks innocently enough, and Oikawa lets his incredulous look speak for itself. Suga hums again and tilts his head to the side with a half-smile. “Alright then. So other than the obvious?”

It takes Oikawa a moment to process what Suga just said, and to his horror can feel his ears start to turn red. “Yes.”

Suga just laughs, breaking out into a proper grin that should really not be as endearing as it is considering how off-balance it’s making Oikawa feel. “Well you were the one who brought up the charm points, so you’re obviously aware!” he says brightly. “I mean, if you want me to be completely honest, I admit I wasn’t expecting to hear from you, so I suppose I couldn’t help but be a little excited at the chance to meet up again. I’m not sure which one of your charm points you might consider to be responsible for that, but if I had to pick anything, I’d say maybe just the fact that you’re not really like anyone I’ve been interested by before?” He actually winks at that, and Oikawa feels like he just died a little inside. “Of course, I feel like it’s fair that I’d get to hear your side of things as well, maybe?”

Oikawa entirely fails to answer, face unnecessarily starting to burn, and Suga’s bright grin settles a little before he lets out a sigh.

“I keep pushing, don’t I,” he says with an apologetic look on his face. “I’m sorry, I really don’t mean to, but it’s all I seem to do with you.”

“It does seem to happen a lot,” Oikawa mutters, still trying to convince himself that none of this is worth blushing over, really. He picks his drink back up for something to do with his hands. It’s still good, just the right amount of sweetness, and he puts it back down perhaps a little more spitefully than required. If it had been bad, he could have at least complained, but of course Suga’s recommendation would be spot on. “Although now I’m wondering why that seems to keep happening.”

“I like to give things chances, I suppose,” Suga admits, sounding a bit sheepish, and Oikawa suddenly finds himself wondering how often Suga does things like this. He quickly pushes down the thought.

It works, until Suga catches his eye and tilts his head as if he knows what Oikawa’s thinking, and Oikawa blurts out, “What if I don’t want this to be a chance.”

For a half-second, Oikawa thinks Suga looks almost disappointed, by the moment passes faster than he can fully register and Suga is smiling just as kindly as he was before.

“Then that’s fine too!” he says, and Oikawa actually feels bad at how genuine he sounds. “It’s completely up to you, you know--just because I’m asking you for something doesn’t mean you can’t say no.” He suddenly looks very concerned, like he’s worried he might have forced Oikawa here against his will, and while that’s not entirely wrong it seems unfair to let him think so, and Oikawa is most certainly not going to think about why that may be.

“Of course I know that!” he says brightly instead, and Suga looks at least a little relieved. “I would never do something I wouldn’t want to, Suga-chan!”

“Well that’s good to hear,” Suga says with a soft smile. Oikawa hates the fact that he feels relieved. “Hmm. They don’t really have a word for platonic dates, do they?” Suga muses lightly. “Still, I’m glad we can be on the same page at the very least!”

“Mm,” Oikawa manages to get out, because his brain is going on far more tangents than necessary and he refuses to entertain any of them. He moves to take another swing of his drink, changes his mind, and stirs it aimlessly around in its mug instead, listening to the general chatter of the cafe as Suga takes a proper swallow of his own coffee.

“Do you not like it?” he asks easily, and Oikawa very nearly spills his drink.

“No, it’s actually good!” he says lightly, hastily putting his mug back down on the table. “I’m just not used to having too many sweet things, is all!” Suga gives another contemplative hum.

“That makes sense. Still, there’s nothing wrong with indulging every now and then! Although,” Suga suddenly offers a brilliant grin, “if you’d rather have something not that sweet, you can always have a taste of mine!” He holds his drink out in front of him, and Oikawa stares at it blankly. “Here, try a sip!”

Oikawa somewhat reluctantly takes the mug from Suga, who grins at him encouragingly, and he twists it around in his hand so that he’s not drinking from the same side Suga has been. It’s good too, at least for the first few seconds, and then suddenly the spice kicks in.

“Oh my God why,” Oikawa jerks back in surprise, and the fact that Suga’s grin only brightens really does not help the situation at all.

“Cinnamon!” he says cheerfully, like that’s somehow supposed to make Oikawa’s tongue stop burning. “And the good kind too. What do you think?”

“I’ll let you know as soon as I can feel my mouth again,” Oikawa gasps, grabbing hold of his own drink again and taking a gulp. Suga just continues to smile.

“Ah, come on, you’re as bad as Daichi. I would have thought you’d be able to take more than that!” Oikawa just shoves him back his drink and Suga promptly takes another sip, with apparently absolutely no reaction to the aftershock.

“Yeah well, I would have thought you would’ve been more of the taking type, but what do I know,” Oikawa retorts, and Suga chokes on his drink. For a split second, Oikawa thinks he’s finally gotten Suga to react with something other than pleasant cheer--embarrassment, anger, something--but it quickly becomes clear that amidst the coughing, Suga is laughing, and hard.

“That’s--that’s awful,” Suga eventually manages to say, kicking at Oikawa’s chair in between hiccups of laughter. His cheeks are flushed and his dimples are on full display, and Oikawa can only stare at him for a good few moments. “I’m not--I’m not even going to respond to that, that’s just--” He dissolves into another fit of giggles, and Oikawa does his absolute best to compose himself because right now is not the time to lose.

“I have no idea what you’re insinuating, Suga-chan, just what kind of a dirty mind do you have?” Oikawa gasps, but Suga just waves him off, obviously trying to regain composure, the back of his other hand pressed against his mouth as he continues to grin unabashedly. “You know, I think you might give things too many chances, Suga-chan,” he adds after a moment. Suga moves his hand away from his mouth, but his smile entirely fails to fade.

“Maybe I do!” he laughs again, but this time he doesn’t seem nearly as sorry about it. “In any case, before I push things again, I really should be going, I still have homework I need to do.” Suga stands up, pushing his chair back up against the table before reaching into his bag to pull out his wallet. “I’m going to go ahead and leave what I owe, so do you mind taking care of the rest of the tab?”

“You’re not paying for mine?” Oikawa probably sounds far more surprised than necessary, but of all the things for Suga to apparently do the less-than-perfectly-polite thing over, Oikawa would not have expected this to be it, and the fact that Suga’s smile somehow manages to grow even brighter really doesn’t help.

“Of course I’m not paying! This isn’t a date, after all,” he says easily. “I have been on actual dates before, I do know the difference between that and spending time with a friend. And besides which, I spent most of my money this week on taking the train multiple times.” Suga moves past Oikawa towards the door, and pauses just outside the doorway. “If you ever want to do something like this again, or even something not like this, just let me know, okay! And maybe next time you can ask me yourself.” He offers one last shining smile and a wave before he heads out, leaving Oikawa alone at the table.

And that should be that, Oikawa thinks, and frowns at the way the thought doesn’t seem to want to sit right. Suga is no longer at risk of getting the wrong idea, and it’s up to Oikawa if they ever want to talk again, which he doesn’t want, and so they won’t. He’ll have time to move on and do so properly this time, and then he’ll never have to worry about being subject to Suga’s deceivingly easy nature ever again. By all accounts, he’s succeeded in everything he needs to once again take back the control Suga somehow makes him feel he has such a loose grip on, and yet, much to his displease, despite all that, somehow, somehow, it still feels like he’s lost.

Chapter Text

It hadn’t actually been until the end of their spontaneous weekend training camp that they found out Aobajousai had been hosting one of their own just down the way.

It had been a good couple of weeks since Suga had last seen Oikawa, and while he certainly isn’t surprised, it had been a notable change from seeing him nearly every day for a week, even if a couple of those times had been an accident. Still, he can’t help but feel a little bad at how clearly Oikawa is deliberately not looking his way, an impressive feat since both teams are waiting at the same bus station. Suga vaguely wonders how they could have been so close and yet not know about the other being there until now, but ultimately he figures it doesn’t really change the current situation, and he’s a little more concerned with keeping an eye on Kageyama, who seems just as keen to pretend Aobajousai isn’t there as Oikawa is about Karasuno.

Suga sighs. At least the bus they have scheduled to pick them up should be here soon.

“Shouldn’t it be here by now?” Suga hears someone ask--it’s no one on his team, so he glances over at Aobajousai curiously. By the looks of it, the one questioning is one of Kageyama’s old teammates, if he remembers correctly. He glances back at Kageyama, who seems sufficiently preoccupied with bickering with Hinata over something, and so he returns his attention to Aobajousai, and the fact that Oikawa seems to be rather frantically checking his phone as Iwaizumi looms over him.

“You did get us a bus back, right,” he can hear Iwaizumi say, and Oikawa lets out a nervous laugh.

“Didn’t I?”

Iwaizumi grabs Oikawa by the collar as Oikawa very obviously tries to avoid his gaze. Suga isn’t sure whether to interfere or laugh. “Call them.”

Suga can see Oikawa grumble to himself as he walks a few feet away from his team, fiddling with his phone. Oikawa glances up and Suga accidentally catches his eye, so he offers a quick smile before politely turning away. He feels someone nudge against his shoulder, and he looks over to see Daichi frowning in the direction of the increasingly fidgety Aobajousai team.

“Is something going on?” he asks Suga. Suga shrugs.

“It seems they might not have a ride back?” he says just as Oikawa spins back around to face his team, a mildly strained smile on his face.

“So!” he says. “Don’t be mad!”

Judging by the look on Iwaizumi’s face, it might be little late for that request, and Suga can’t but feel a little bad for Oikawa as he very obviously winces under the weight of Iwaizumi’s glare. “I, ah, may or may not have requested the wrong date.” Suga can see Iwaizumi let out a long breath.

“And how exactly did you manage that.”

“I might have made the arrangements around three a.m.?” Oikawa admits, and he has about three seconds of quiet before Iwaizumi starts shouting profanities.

“You actual dumbass piece of trash, what the actual hell--”

Suga leans back towards Daichi as Oikawa cringes under the assault of words and fists, Daichi watching the whole thing with a bemused expression.

“Daichi, with the bus we got, we should have extra seats, right?”

“Yeah, it was either that or get a bus that would been short a few seats--Suga no.”

Suga just levels Daichi with a look until Daichi lets out a defeated sigh and reluctantly walks over to the other side of the station where the rest of the Aobajousai team seems to be ganging up on Oikawa. Suga tags along a few steps behind, and Daichi shoots him a reproachful look before he waves to get their attention.

“Hey there! Is everything all right over here?”

“Ah! It’s fine! Everything’s perfectly fine!” Oikawa calls out in reply, even as he seems to be in something of a grappling match with Iwaizumi. He briefly looks over at Suga before turning his attention determinedly towards Daichi, a bright smile on his face as he struggles to prevent Iwaizumi from smacking him again. Daichi stares back at Suga, who simply nods him back forward. Daichi sighs again.

“Are you sure? Because we might be able to help--”

“Nope! Nope! It’s perfectly fine!”

“If you need a ride back, we should have some extra seats on our bus!” Suga pipes up, and Oikawa freezes. “It might be a little cramped, but I’m sure we can fit everyone!”

“No, no, it’s fine, I have everything under control--” Oikawa starts, but Iwaizumi takes advantage of his sudden stillness to smack him on the back of the head. Oikawa lets out a cry.

“That would be very much appreciated,” Iwaizumi says, ignoring Oikawa’s sputtering protests. Suga smiles brightly.

“No problem! I’m sure we can negotiate something with the bus driver when he gets here,” he says. Iwaizumi nods and turns to Oikawa, who is staring at some corner of the station nowhere near the current negotiation; he looks back over at Suga, and then turns back to Oikawa and smacks him again.

“Iwa-chan, why!”

“Say, Suga, did you do something to Oikawa?” Daichi asks quietly as they move back over to their own team to explain the situation. Suga grins a little sheepishly.

“I took him out for coffee?”

Daichi stares at him for a moment before letting out another defeated sigh. “Of course you did.”

It doesn’t take long for the bus to arrive after the situation has been cleared by the rest of the Karasuno--Kageyama looks very uncomfortable through the whole thing, but no one actually protests--and Iwaizumi succeeds in convincing the driver to take them to their school after dropping Karasuno off, albeit for a fee.

“We can cover that fine,” he says as the two teams start to clamber onto the bus and figure out seats. “We can even split the total cost if you’d like, we really do owe you for this.”

“Don’t worry about it, we can figure it out later,” Daichi says, and Iwaizumi nods and steps onto the bus.

“Oh, Iwa-chan--”

“No. Come on, Kindaichi.” Iwaizumi walks straight past Oikawa without so much as a glance at him, although he does offer Suga another brief nod of thanks, which Suga returns with a smile. They follow him on, with Oikawa trailing dejectedly after them.

The bus is definitely full by this point--it seems most of Karasuno has squeezed itself into the back rows, which neither Kageyama nor Tsukishima look particularly happy about, and there’s a seat open by Tanaka, who’s leaning over to chat with Noya, who seems to have taken advantage of his small size to fit in between Hinata and Asahi. There’s one unclaimed row of two seats open in the front, and Suga starts to move towards it, only to come to a halt when Daichi suddenly turns around to face him.

“Daichi?”

Daichi puts his hands on Suga’s shoulders and looks at him with a look of utmost seriousness. “Suga, I am so sorry.”

“Daichi, I’m going to punch you,” Suga says blandly, and Daichi hastily lets go and steals the seat next to Tanaka. Suga sighs and turns to face Oikawa with an apologetic smile. Oikawa just stares at him blankly, like he’s only just now piecing together what this means.

“Well then,” Suga says. “Would you prefer the window or the aisle seat?”

Oikawa silently throws his stuff towards the window seat and goes to sit down. Suga lets out a sigh.

“I’m sorry about this,” Suga says as he settles down next to Oikawa. “I know you’ve been trying to avoid me, so I feel bad forcing you into this, again.”

Oikawa actually looks startled at that, although he recovers quickly enough with a bright, if not still somewhat strained grin. “Don’t worry, Suga-chan! Even I know this time it’s much more our teammates’ fault that yours!” He looks pointedly over at where Iwaizumi is sitting, who just flips him off in return. Suga bites back a laugh, because he’s sure that’s not going to particularly help things right now.

“Well to be fair to them, I’m sure your team would be a little upset they almost didn’t have a ride home, and I’m assuming my team is a little worried about inadvertently stirring up conflict, since there is some history there. Excepting me, apparently,” he adds, and Oikawa lets out a somewhat hollow laugh.

“Even your captain? How unprofessional!”

Suga hums in agreement. “Daichi would probably be passive-aggressive the whole time and then complain about it to me for ages afterwards, and no one wants that,” he says, and Oikawa laughs again, although it seems much more surprised this time.

“I heard that!” Daichi calls from behind, and Suga turns in his seat and grins brightly at him.

“You brought this on yourself!” he calls right back. He catches Iwaizumi’s gaze as he turns back around, and offers a slightly more sheepish smile, although Iwaizumi looks more faintly amused than anything. “Sorry,” he says again to Oikawa, but Oikawa has pulled out a set of headphones and his laptop, and doesn’t seem to have noticed Suga said anything. Figuring that’s as dismissive a gesture as anything, Suga settles back down into his seat and closes his eyes.

He wakes up sometime later to the sensation of being pushed to the side. He frowns as he tries to take in the situation, and turns to see Oikawa staring at him with evident surprise, his hand hovering over Suga’s shoulder. His right side does feels much warmer than his left, Suga thinks, and he realizes he must have slumped against Oikawa at some point in his sleep.

“Oh,” he manages before he’s interrupted by a yawn. “Sorry, I didn’t mean to--”

“Don’t worry about it!” Oikawa quickly cuts him off in a hushed tone, and a quick glance around the bus reveals everyone else seems to be fast asleep. Suga hums quietly and leans back in his seat. Oikawa seems to have returned to what he had been watching before, and Suga glances at the screen to see that it’s a volleyball game. He blinks blearily as he tries to put a name to the uniform.

“Is that Shiratorizawa?” he asks after a moment. Oikawa glances at him briefly before nodding.

“Their wing spiker is a problem,” Oikawa says, watching the game closely as Shiratorizawa gets in position to serve. “If there’s anyone I need to study, it’s him--and when I face him next, I’m going to win. I’m just looking to the next obstacle, I suppose you could say--there’s always someone better, after all.” There’s a certain tinge of bitterness to his words, and Suga winces at a particularly ruthless play by Ushijima.

“I can understand that,” he says, and winces again in sympathy when the video flashes an image of the difference between the two teams’ scores. Oikawa glances at him again.

“You can go back to sleep,” he says, not quite reproachfully, but Suga quickly shifts away from where he was starting to lean over the screen.

“Sorry! I just generally have trouble falling back asleep after I’ve woken up, I’m not trying to impose. And besides which, I’ll probably just end up leaning against you anyway.”

Oikawa looks like he very much wants to say something to that, but he ultimately remains silent, staring back down at his laptop. Suga settles back down in his seat one more time,  and figures he can just stare at the seat in front of him until he falls asleep again.

“Are you planning to continue volleyball in college?” Oikawa suddenly asks, and Suga looks back over at him.

“I haven’t decided yet,” he says honestly. “It depends on what I end up studying, I suppose.”

“You should,” Oikawa says shortly, and Suga can’t help but stare at him in surprise. “I have studied how you play too, you know.” Oikawa raps his computer screen with his knuckles, and Suga isn’t sure whether to feel flattered or concerned. “Your play style’s generic, but your sets are solid and you’re skilled at adapting your moves to whoever it is you’re setting to. You’re a good setter,” he says, and Suga can feel his face start to grow warm. He looks away.

“That’s, ah--wow.” Suga can feel a grin tugging at the edge of his lips, and he ducks his head down further, trying to resist the urge to laugh self-consciously. “Thank you! That’s really something to hear, especially coming from you.” He’s sure his cheeks are still tinged pink, but he looks back up with a smile, just see Oikawa staring at him with an absolutely dumbfounded look on his face.

“Really? That’s what gets you?” he practically squeaks, sounding remarkably distressed. “Teasing and insults are perfectly fine, but a compliment is too much?”

“Oh shut up!” Suga finally laughs, punching him in the arm without thinking. Oikawa recoils, looking thoroughly hurt, although he seems to be blushing just as badly as Suga is at this point. Suga bites down on the inside of his lip to try to quiet himself down, because looking at Oikawa just makes him want to laugh again, and while a glance outside the window reveals they’re very close to arriving at Karasuno, Suga doesn’t think he wants the rest of the bus awake just yet. He slides a little down in his seat, still grinning to himself as he watches Oikawa out if the corner of his eye, who is determinedly staring at his laptop once more.

It’s a short drive to the school from there, and the rest of the trip passes in silence as the rest of the teams slowly wake up and stretch. Suga glances over at Oikawa once again, who apparently notices Suga looking and glances back, and Suga offers a smile before he shifts towards the aisle. Just before he gets out of his seat, however, he decides it’s worth a shot and turns back to Oikawa and holds out his hand with a bright grin. “See you on the court?”

Oikawa stares at Suga’s outstretched hand for just a moment, and then he reaches out and gives it a friendly shake. “Sure,” he says, and although his returning smile isn’t quite as bright, Suga is willing to accept it, and he grins widely before standing up to go.

“Suga, I swear you’re a miracle worker,” Daichi mutters as their team loads off the bus.

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Suga laughs as he gives a small wave to Oikawa before the bus pulls away. Oikawa doesn’t return it, although that might be because from the looks of it, Iwaizumi has gotten out of his seat and is slapping Oikawa across the head. Suga turns back around and shoulders his bag, and grins brightly as he looks ahead. “Well then! Shall we go?”

Chapter Text

Typically, the week in between the end of one school year and the start of another doesn’t seem all that significant--it’s just a week, after all, and nothing other than the class schedule really changes after the break. But now, in being the spring break marking the end of his third year, the whole situation somehow carries an entirely different connotation when, at the end of the week, Oikawa’s going to be attending an entirely new school, in an entirely different part of Japan. He has to start from the bottom all over again, and without his team to boot--it’s a change, to be sure, and the fact that he isn’t yet sure if he’s handling it well really doesn’t explain why he’s waiting in the middle of a park at two in the afternoon for something that could possibly be even worse.

This is probably a bad idea. He flips his phone open just to see the message he sent stare accusingly back at him. They haven’t talked for some time, and haven’t even seen each since their last match--there isn’t much to say when one of you has officially ended the other’s high school sports career. It turns out the problem in aiming to win is that someone else has to lose, and Oikawa had never even really considered that point of view until faced with it properly himself.

Except, even with this marked endpoint--the end of high school, the end of his captaincy, the end of seeing even the same people on a day-to-day basis, whether he wanted to or not--Oikawa isn’t satisfied. Shaking hands with Suga on the court should logically have decided who stood as the victor and who would have to move on, but as the weeks continued to pass and Oikawa still didn’t feel like he’s succeeded in being either one, he finds he might just have to finally admit that maybe this is a situation where him losing doesn’t necessarily equate Suga winning, or even the other way around. It’s a mildly terrifying thought, that if he’s willing to to take the leap and push it for himself, they both can win, but if the way his brain continues to drift towards Suga’s eternally kind smile far more frequently than strictly necessary is anything to go by, then it’s clear that winning here isn’t achieved in avoiding.

He still isn’t sure if he wants to try this. Still, it’s impossible to un-send a message, and since Suga has already replied, he doesn’t really have much of a choice but to wait.

“Oikawa?”

Oikawa looks up to see Suga standing at the edge of the road, looking down towards where Oikawa has seated himself by the riverbank. He steels himself against the now seemingly inevitable feeling of being thrown off-balance, although he must have come across as surprised, because Suga smiles brightly and holds up his phone.

“You did text me first this time, right?” he says lightly, and even though Oikawa is regretting having done so with every bone in his body, he grins cheerfully and and waves Suga down. This is bound to end badly--Oikawa isn’t even sure why or how but he’s sure it is--but starting next week he’s going to be leaving home and having to fight from the bottom all over again, so it’s not like he has anything to lose any longer, and he is determined to see this through.

“I did indeed!” he says as Suga carefully makes his way down the hill. “Come on, sit down, the grass is fine!”

Suga smiles softly. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it!” he says, settling himself down next to Oikawa, whose mind decides to go completely blank when Suga’s shoulder brushes up against his own. “You wanted to talk?”

Oikawa manages a vague noise of agreement, because of course now with Suga actually sitting here, it suddenly feels infinitely more difficult to admit why he called Suga down here, much less that he might have been wrong before to not have. Somehow, the gap in time since they last saw each other has made his apparent inability to remain in control even worse; but then, he already knew that.

“It’s all a bit strange, having actually graduated, isn’t it?” Suga says after Oikawa fails to break the silence first.

“It is!” Oikawa agrees, and internally curses himself because small talk is not what he’s here for, and also this isn’t particularly a subject he wants to linger on at the moment. “It’ll be a pain having to work my way up all over again, but I’ve done it before, and I will do it again!” Suga smiles in understanding.

“When do you start?” he asks.

“Next week! You?”

“Same! So where are you going?”

“Tokyo,” Oikawa says, and Suga immediately perks up.

“You too!” he says, and Oikawa absolutely does not feel a spark of hope.

“Well, Tokyo is a big place!” he says. Suga hums.

“That is true.” Suga grins and nudges Oikawa’s shoulder with a joking laugh. “Well, you aren’t by chance going to Todai, are you?”

There’s a beat of silence in which Oikawa stares at Suga, and it takes Suga a moment to figure out why. “R-really!” he says, looking positively delighted, and Oikawa finds himself startled into grinning back. “That’s great! Oh, it’ll be good to have at least one familiar face there--but seriously, isn’t that a coincidence!”

“It certainly seems to be!” Oikawa manages to get out, because Suga is very close right now and it really has been a long time since he’s had to face this directly, and he has to remind himself that there’s still an answer he needs to gain from this, and escaping isn’t going to do that any good.

“I guess this means I’ll be competing directly with you now,” Suga adds as he settles back down--he seems to have noticed Oikawa’s discomfort, and looks mildly embarrassed, even as he continues to grin. Oikawa finds it’s difficult not to grin back, and ignores the fact that he can feel the back of his neck starting to burn.

“You’ll be trying out for the team, then!” he says. Suga smiles and stretches his arms out in front of him.

“I figured it was worth a shot! After all, it can’t hurt to just try.” Suga offers a bright grin, and Oikawa tries very hard not to read too much into what the gesture might mean. “And in any case, it would certainly be interesting to play with you on the same team!”

“Well that would be assuming we would both get on!” Oikawa says with a laugh, and he can feel his heart rate speed up when Suga suddenly gets a competitive gleam in his eye. “We are going back to being annoying first years, after all!”

“There’s always a chance,” Suga says simply, although there’s a clear tone of confidence that is probably affecting Oikawa far more than it should.

“There is a chance,” Oikawa agrees, and Suga laughs.

“Should I take that in terms of the fact that it’s a university team, or that I shouldn’t get my hopes up because I’m dealing with you?” he asks, sounding perfectly good-natured. Oikawa tries to keep his steadying breath as subtle as he can.

“Mostly the former,” he says lightly, and Suga actually straightens at that, looking at him with a kind of surprise he had caught a glimpse of on the bus--and the image of that moment suddenly re-surging in his brain doesn’t exactly make this admittance any easier. “I wouldn’t rule out the latter, though!”

Suga laughs again, bumping his shoulder against Oikawa’s yet again. “Well, if that’s the case! I think I can handle that--after all, I think I have a pretty good idea of what your weaknesses are by now, I shouldn’t have too much of a problem with that!” He actually winks at that, and Oikawa can only gape at him for a moment before he points at him accusingly, desperately trying to ignore the fact that his face is sure to be bright red.

“You’re horrible! You’re secretly awful and no one knows because you’re so nice!” He’s sure his shouting is drawing the attention of anyone who happens to be walking by on the path above, and Suga cracks up, even as Oikawa shoves at him, letting himself fall back onto the grass. He laughs even harder when Oikawa sticks his tongue out at him, and makes no move to get up, even when Oikawa kicks vaguely at his feet.

“So mean,” he mutters to himself as Suga is clearly trying to calm himself down. “Mean, Suga-chan!” Suga just grins at him, his giggles eventually fading out into silence.

“Oikawa?”

“What?” Oikawa can’t help but pout. Suga just continues to smiles up at him and folds his hands over his stomach.

“What did you ask me out here for? You never did clarify.” Oikawa stills, but before he can force himself to answer, Suga adds, “I just want to make sure I’m on the same page here.”

If the way he’s been teasing him is anything to go by, then Suga is definitely on the same page as Oikawa here, maybe even a few ahead, but Oikawa still can’t quite bring himself to put it into words--he isn’t even sure if he knows how. “And yet you’re the one who came all the way over here without even knowing why I asked you to! If anything, that makes me more curious about what it is you want, rather than me!” Suga lets out a soft hum.

“What do you think?” Suga sounds like he’s genuinely curious, but Oikawa can’t quite keep himself from scowling in annoyance at the obvious turn-around.

“Oh I think I have a pretty clear idea of what it is you want,” he grumbles, and Suga lets out a laugh.

“I suppose that’s fair!” he says, and he tilts his head, his hair brushing against the grass. “Hmm, if it’s something I want--maybe a kiss for good luck?” He says it lightly enough to be a joke, but Oikawa is almost positive Suga means it genuinely, and the fact that everything he’s been wondering has just been confirmed and he has the opportunity to act on it is almost too much for him to fully comprehend, much less force himself to act on. This is what he came down here to find out though, and everything is changing around him anyway--Oikawa may be a tactician, but Suga has been an anomaly since day one, and even Oikawa knows you sometimes have to take risks to reap the rewards. He doesn’t have to lose to Suga over this. He must have waited a beat too long, however, because Suga suddenly looks concerned and he moves to sit up. “Ah! Unless that’s not why--” he starts, but he stops as soon as Oikawa moves, and before he can back out of this, Oikawa leans over.

It’s just a brief press of the lips, but Oikawa feels it all the way down to his toes, and when Suga moves to lay back down against the hill, Oikawa finds himself following the motion, bracing himself over Suga so that there’s nowhere for him to move to, trapped against the grass. Suga can’t seem to stop beaming.

“One more chance, then?” he asks, his cheeks flushed pink, and for a moment all Oikawa can do is stare.

“I’m not going to lose to you,” he says instead, and Suga laughs.

“I wouldn’t expect you would plan to!” Oikawa entirely fails to move away as Suga continues to grin back up at him, and after a moment Suga shifts his head against the grass again with another soft hum. “I don’t suppose you plan on letting me up anytime soon?”

“I haven’t decided yet,” Oikawa mumbles, and Suga’s grin grows even wider.

“And I’ll be seeing you next week?”

“Right,” Oikawa says, and with another bright smile and a laugh, Suga tugs him back down.