the air feels different when oikawa finally steps off the plane, his face still sleepy and his backpack heavy on the shoulder stiff from sleeping badly. he breathes deeply as he walks down the stairs.
he's in california for the first time.
his legs tingle as he crosses the tarmac toward the terminal with the rest of the passengers, flexing his fingers restlessly when they step through the doors and the cool air conditioning raises goosebumps on the exposed skin of his arms.
there's so much noise inside, dozens of people converging after landing just like him, many workers calling out while rushing from one place to another. among all the english, there are traces of other languages.
tooru's eyes sweep across the terminal until they finally land on the baggage carousel for his flight, and he moves closer to look for his suitcases. luckily, they don't take long to appear, and he adjusts his backpack before pulling his 20kg suitcase and the other 10kg one off the belt.
one black-brown and one green, covered in all sorts of stickers, some worn and faded, others brand new. his mother had asked him if he'd gone a little overboard when he told her how much luggage he was bringing for fifteen days. but for oikawa, it's fine. there are basic things, things he needs, things that are there just in case and things that are for iwa-chan.
he drags them along at either side as he walks towards the exit, nerves beginning to simmer beneath his skin over a slow fire. tooru's here, he's still a little sleepy, but he's really on american ground.
with his argentine passport in hand, he makes his way through customs and immigration, the whole process slow and tedious, barely paying attention to what they're asking him and only thinking if he activated the sim card properly, if iwa-chan got his message, if he replied, if he'll be waiting beyond the doors, if tooru'll have to get an uber, if he wrote down iwa-chan's address somewhere.
maybe it was a little reckless to tell him once he got on the plane, that he was coming, ignoring the fact that their last messages had been five months ago and their last conversation had been on instagram three months ago, when iwa congratulated him on his naturalization.
but he did it, and there's no taking it back.
his heart told him it wanted to risk absolutely everything, and who is oikawa to tell it no? who is tooru to tell himself no?
he loves hajime the way he loves the sun when it rains and the rain when the sun is shining. he loves hajime in every version of himself and across every distance. the silence hurts him, and the calm hurts him too.
tooru follows the group of passengers making their way towards the exit, his stomach twisting and his nerves are now biting at his skin from every direction. his breathing quickens a little when the doors open and they step outside to a sea of people waiting on the other side.
oikawa slowly makes his way through families reuniting through tears, couples throwing themselves into each other's arms, abandoned luggage, children shouting happily and bouncing on their feet, mechanical voices announcing flights and arrivals.
there's no sign of iwa, and tooru's heart shrinks and he wants to throw up.
the airport is huge and oikawa walks over a few empty seats between two overcrowded cafรฉs, though he doesn't sit down. he leaves his suitcases at his side, his backpack on one of the chairs, slips a trembling hand into his pocket and pulls out his phone, turning it on.
and his knees nearly give out when he sees the dozens of messages from iwa-chan, from hajime. the last ones, sent less than an hour ago.
still cant fucking believe what u've done
relief floods through him, and he has to blink when his eyes begin to sting with tears. he holds his phone in both hands, thinking and thinking and thinking about what to reply, until he notices iwa-chan is online. his eyes widen and his breath catches when he reads the "typing..."
and tooru does and he sobs, his face crumpling the way it always does when he's trying not to cry, when he sees iwaizumi standing only eight steps away instead of more than 8,000 kilometres, breathless, as he'd crossed the entire airport just for him, opening his arms as if there were nowhere else for him in the world
tooru runs, with legs trembling, and crashes into hajime with the force of a meteor, sending them both stumbling backwards until iwaizumi anchors them firmly in place and keeps them upright in the middle of the collision. he feels one strong arm around his waist, the other across his back, and tooru sinks into his scent and his presence.
how could tooru have let this happen? how could he have let any crack grow wider instead of filling it with more love and patience and effort?
"i'm sorry," he murmurs quietly, tightening his arms around hajime's neck as he buries himself deeper against him. "i'm so sorry, hajime."
"it was both of us, idiot," he replies, his voice clear and damp, while the hand on his back strokes him with all the affection gathered over decades of an ethereal bond. "i can't believe you're here" he whispers against the skin of his neck, making it break out in goosebumps.
sniffling, oikawa slowly calms down, hajime's heart beating hard and real against his own.
it's been a miracle to make this trip to california and see hajime happen, the journey and the visa have been a disaster. but tooru wouldn't mind living somewhere between miracle and disaster if it's for iwa.
a millennium passes before they pull apart, but only enough to lift their gazes and look at each other and take in everything they've allowed themselves to miss. hajime looks bigger, more mature, softer. his eyes haven't lost their brightness or their colour and his skin is maybe a little darker and there's a piercing through his eyebrow that makes tooru smile at the image of kaa-chan being horrified by it.
tooru cradles hajime's face, stroking his cheeks with his thumbs, feeling warmth spread across his own when he realizes hajime is looking at him too, studying him, drinking him in as if he'd gone years without water and had finally found an oasis of fresh water.
"i'm staying for fifteen days" he murmurs, looking into the eyes that watched him grow up.
"judging by everything you brought with you, i thought you'd be staying for a lifetime," hajime replies, but what he wanted to sound like a joke doesn't quite manage it.
"can i?" tooru asks breathlessly, courage running through his veins. "can i stay for a lifetime with you? this time for real, this time without running away?"
there's a gentle squeeze at his waist, pulling him even closer if that's possible and hajime's eyes fill with pure love.
"don't ask. you can, of course you can, tooru."
long live iwaoi airport reunions ๐โโ๏ธ
u can find me on my ao3, bluesky and this is my carrd and strawpage ๐
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