Oikawa sprints. He's fighting himself to believe that maybe he hasn't missed the train. That perhaps he won't be looking forward to a shallow grave on the side of the road when he eventually makes his way home to Miyagi. But he doesn't believe it, and he wails as he arrives on the platform with a thumping heart to a trainless view.
Someone on the other side calls out something he's fairly certain he should take offense to, and he sticks his tongue out to make a face. He was so close. A fact that his company on the other platform confirms.
"Seriously though, you missed it by thirty seconds or something."
Oikawa sets his bag down and sags to the ground beside it. He can hear the funeral march coming for him. Hajime was very explicit about what would happen if Oikawa didn't make the train.
"Iwa-chan is going to grind my bones for his bread," he says, to explain the level of his despair.
His companion seems interested, and must not have a train for a while, because he sinks down to match Oikawa, laughing and verbally prodding him to explain further.
Once they get around to his companion handing over his name. Oikawa files it away: Miyuki Kazuya.
"Oikawa Tooru," Oikawa says. "Call me Oikawa."
"Tooru it is," says Miyuki with a slick kind of a grin. It's the kind of grin Oikawa likes and doesn't see often.
- "Where are you heading?"
- "Does Miyucchi have a boyfriend?"
- "Shouldn't you show new friends more respect?"
He barely finishes getting out the question before Kazuya vanishes from sight, a train passing between them.
For a second, Oikawa wonders whether that will be the end to their meet cute, but then Kazuya is back in view and grinning at Oikawa again.
"Come again?" Kazuya asks.
Oikawa knows his expression must flash to something unsightly for a moment but he can't help himself. He knows he's going to come off as clingy, or a creep, but it's a risk he can take.
"If Miyucchi doesn't want to give me his number he could just tell me," Oikawa singsongs, eyes dancing.
Miyuki doesn't hesitate as he tells Oikawa his number over the railway tracks.
Kazuya hears the guy before he sees him. His loud wail reaches Kazuya's ears as the train on the platform across the tracks vanishes into the distance.
- "Nice legs! Keep going and you'll be home in no time."
- Clap for the show
- Laugh. Just laugh.
The guy pulls a face that make his handsome features look decidedly un-handsome at Kazuya's taunt.
"Seriously though, you missed it by thirty seconds or something," he says, wandering up to the edge of his platform and peering into the distance. The train is out of sight, and he can't remember which line runs that way from this station.
The guy deflates and drops his rather large bag to the ground beside him, then follows along side it.
"Iwa-chan is going to grind my bones for his bread," the guy declares, mournfully.
Kazuya crouches down to match the guy. His train will be here soon, but he doesn't think he'll bother catching it.
"You're friends with a giant?" Kazuya asks.
The guy nods. "The growth-stunted giant of Miyagi. He's a fearsome brute."
"Short?"
"Tiny," the guy declares, stretching out his legs, Kazuya suspects to purposefully draw attention to the fact that he isn't short, even if this Iwa-chan is.
- "Do you have a name?"
- "What's the name, Stranger-san?"
- "I'm Miyuki, who are you?"
"I think it's only proper to introduce yourself first! For all I know your name could be Murder Killington and we all know what people with that name do."
Kazuya laughs. "Miyuki," he says, "Kazuya. Call me whatever."
"Hmm," the stranger muses. "I don't know whether I should give my name to a Miyucchi. I've heard they're suspicious types."
Kazuya winces at Miyucchi, the last thing he needs is that catching on, and spreads his hands wide.
"How about Kazuya then? Pretty sure there's never been a suspicious Kazuya." He's sure there has been, but the guy doesn't need to know that.
The guy smiles, and Kazuya could swear he's seen that same look in the mirror. It sends an excited shiver down his spine, and he leans forward to keep talking to the stranger across the railway tracks.
The guy confesses his name, Tooru, Kazuya thinks to himself and turns the name over in his mind. It's a cute name and doesn't entirely suit the guy, so Kazuya begins using it immediately.
Tooru pouts and says something, but Kazuya can't hear a word as his train puts its brakes on and comes to a halt in front of him.
He doesn't consider getting up for a second.
The train leaves him on the station.
"Hey, want to trade numbers?" he asks.
Tooru's face flashes into an expression that might be honesty.
"Miyucchi is so forward~" he says, but Kazuya isn't surprised when he recites his number over the railway tracks.
- How lucky you are to know a beautiful man such as myself!
- That Furuya of yours is going to fail his test
- You hope that Sawamura hasn't consumed something inedible. Like a fork.
- Dick pics.
- Ur face
- Asking about ghosts, obviously.
...
...
- Yes
- No
- Yes
- No
- Yes
- No
Somewhere, Oikawa thinks, Iwa-chan is calling him a coward.
- Thx, lol
- U r 2
- ur my favourite person
Oikawa fidgets with the idea of it, wavering back and forth like he doesn't know what he wants.
He's been thinking of heading up to Tokyo, of paying Miyuki a visit — who is he trying to kid, though, he wants to go on a date — but he hesitates. Their first encounter had them already meeting in the flesh, but things are different now they have a new set of feelings to deal with, and neither of them are very good at managing their own. Still, it can't hurt to take the plunge. After all, if he's going to hit it, he's going to hit until it breaks.
So, he takes the first step.
...
Kazuya picks up after the first ring.
"When and where," he says with a laugh coating his voice.
"Eager, aren't we," Oikawa fires back, but he's smiling so hard. It's not like he could be anything else when Kazuya is looking forward to seeing him. "Are you free on the 1st of July? It's a Saturday~"
"I dunno, I might be able to make the time." He pauses, like maybe he expects Oikawa to worry, then relents. "I'll pick you up from Tokyo Station — where we met, before."
"Miyucchi's such a gentleman!"
"But of course." A pause here that can only mean Kazuya's up to mischief. "Anything for the boy of my dreams."
Oikawa doesn't give Miyuki the satisfaction of hearing him splutter, but it's a close thing, pulling the phone away before ending the call, his heart so bouyant it's between his ears.
Kazuya texts Oikawa to find him at the Marunouchi side of Tokyo Station.
It's towards the far east border, a landmark famous for its looming presence. It's the kind of thing Kazuya finds beautiful with its vibrant blue bricks looming upwards. This view is the kind that he wants to share with Oikawa, too.
Five minutes become ten, then twenty. Kazuya shifts back and forth, checking his phone and scanning the crowd to distract himself from Oikawa not being here. Then, a text.
Kazuya frowns at the message. He has no idea where Oikawa could be that he's messed up the directions that badly. On the off chance Oikawa just missed the landmark, Kazuya snaps a picture of his surroundings.
A second later, Oikawa sends one back. And that's when the world tilts.
Everything in Oikawa's picture is the exact copy of Miyuki's— apart from the building's colour: red.
As if the weirdness extends to Oikawa being clairvoyant, Oikawa texts again.
Kazuya hits call. "Tooru."
Oikawa huffs. "Miyucchi, where are you standing?"
"By the vending machine, the red one," he replies, and he glances around, hoping against all odds that Oikawa will suddenly appear.
He gives up on that when Oikawa says, full of overdramatic despair, "I can't find it. There's just a blue one here."
"Ah." Kazuya's heart hasn't sunk this low in a long while. He'd forgotten how much it hurts. "Got an idea of what this means?"
"I suppose it means that the fates are playing a little trick on us," Oikawa laughs into the line, and Kazuya's relieved that he does, even if it is a little bittersweet.
"But," Kazuya stops, starts, swallows. "You've made it all this way, it can't be for nothing! I wanted to take you places, show you things." And make you laugh, see you smile.
"Well, we'll just have to make do with our phones as usual— to bridge the gap with the innovation of the modern day." Oikawa's tone is sombre, but it still takes on the hint of a challenge as he finishes with: "So, lead the way, Miyucchi! Let's show these worlds how much fun we can still have."
“Are we really just gonna not talk about this?”
“Later,” Oikawa answers, swallowing the lump of bitterness at the back of his throat. “I don’t want to waste time over things we don’t understand right now.”
“But—“
“I’d rather spend all that time on you. With you, Miyucchi!”
He listens to the sigh Miyuki lets out and knows that he’ll relent for now. “Alright, alright. Get on our chat then, Tooru.
...
...
- Tokyo Skytree
- Tokyo Character Street
"Tooru, you know this sounds stupid, right?" Kazuya says into his ear. "Magic isn't even a thing."
"Of course not," he says and casts his eyes around. "But I suppose I'm willing to act a bit stupid for you, Miyucchi."
"That's gross," Kazuya says, to which Oikawa laughs.
"You might want to loosen up a little. After all, you're going to have me in the flesh soon!"
Kazuya gives a fond little huff. "If you're right."
"I'm always right!"
"That time you glued your fingers together on purpose?"
"That," Oikawa says, "was for science."
"God, you're the worst," Kazuya says, like he knows Oikawa is the kind of worst he deserves.
"I'm here," Oikawa says, as he reaches the platform where they first met. This time he has his breath intact, but he's too nervous, too hopeful despite himself, that maybe he's right and they will be able to see each other again.
He calculated it out, worked out which day would have the moon and the sun's gravity pulling them in just the right direction.
This time around, it's Kazuya running up his side of the platform. The sun's afternoon rays light up his hair and skin in a way that the selfies he took with his years old phone couldn't capture in the slightest.
"Miyucchi," he says, too nervous to even smile.
Kazuya can't believe he's going to be the one late for this. Though it's fitting, him out of breath and Tooru looking poised with that grin of his.
It's Tooru's fault, of course, distracting him and making his chest go tight with how convinced he is that they'll be able to meet.
He swipes through the stiles at the station entrance and checks the time as he half jogs past a clock.
He's late.
He breaks into a run, sprinting up the stairs to the platform they first met.
Oikawa clambers down off the platform and over the tracks at the same time as Kazuya drops his bag and jumps down.
They can both feel the tension they've been carrying for months dissipate as they stumble towards each other, and hug tight.
"Shit," Kazuya says, against Oikawa's skin with his glasses digging into his neck. "Fucking hell, Tooru."
"We should move off the tracks," Oikawa says, without budging an inch.
Kazuya laughs, releasing Oikawa enough to look at him. "Like I'd let you get your ass killed after you went to all this effort."
"Anything for you, Miyucchi~!"
Kazuya laughs again, and harder, supporting his weight against Oikawa. "You're even worse in person."
Oikawa reaches up and strokes his thumb across Kazuya's cheek, noting but not acknowledging the track of moisture running down it.
Kazuya smiles against the touch, even though he's trying to keep his cool, and mimics the action in a way that he can't even pretend is mocking.
"It's good to see you, Miyucchi."
"Yeah. You too, Tooru."
