#aru-mine

“Nice serve, Oikawa!”

The words register in Suga’s ears as he switches positions, but he’s only vaguely aware of the movement of the ball as he movesacross the court; that is, until it hits him straight in the face.

He’s midstride, one foot in the air, and thesheer velocity of Oikawa’s serve forces his upper body in a different directionthan the rest of it, throwing him off-balance. Before he can adjust his raisedfoot, he lurches forward, and he can feel the awkward angle on which he landsas a sharp pain shoots up his leg.

He crashes to the ground, not even having enoughtime to put his hands out to break his fall, and even while this is occurring hecan’t get over how terrifyingly devastating the serve is- how terrifyingly powerful Oikawa is.

“Suga!”

“Suga-san!”

Suga pushes himself up, blinking in an attempt toregain some clarity in his sight. He’s welcomed with the view of some of histeammates already starting to huddle around him, the worry prevalent on theirfaces easing as he smiles up at them reassuringly.

“You alright?”

“Yeah, I think I’m oka-“

“KOU-CHAN!”

Oikawa’s frantic face comes into view as he quiteliterally shoves Daichi and Asahi out of the way, breathing heavily fromsprinting across the court. They shoot him menacing glares, but he doesn’t seemto notice.

“Are you okay?!”

“If you hadn’t interrupted him, he would’ve toldyou the answer to that already,” Daichi points out, tone laced with irritationat the other captain’s overzealous behavior.

He proves to be as oblivious as usual towardsthings he doesn’t want to hear.

“We have to get you to the nurse! Iwa-chan! She’llstill be here, right?”

“How the hell should I know? Maybe, instead of doing that, you should askSuga-san if he even wants to go to the nurse in the first place.”

“Yeah, I don’t really think that will be necessary. I’m pretty sure I’m fine, actually!”

Suga readjusts his legs and grasps Oikawa’s outstretchedhand to pull himself up, a jolt of pain shooting into his ankle as he stands.He masks it almost immediately, but the initial discomfort had caught him by surpriseand he sees a sharp glint in Oikawa’s eye.

“I’m fine, Tooru,” he says by way of a warning,so as to keep the other boy from overreacting.

“Are you sure,though, because I don’t want you to-“

“Like I said, I’m-“ Suga takes a step, unable tohide his grimace this time.         “-fine.”

“Koushi-“

“Don’t worry about me. It’s okay, I promise,” hesays with a smile, taking another step further away. He falters though, hoppingslightly, and Oikawa instinctively steps forward with half-raised arms.

“Really, Tooru. We have a game to get back-“ Sugamisjudges the pressure he places on his foot, gritting his teeth at thestinging of his ankle. “…to.”

Oikawa strides toward him, jaw locked and eyesdead-set on Suga. He ducks down and picks Suga up-princess style of allthings-much to the protest of the latter.

“Hey!”

The rest of the teams merely glance up, most ofthem not even bothering to look surprised anymore as they reset their lineups.

“Hey let me go!”

Oikawa continues to walk out of the gym, smilenever faltering as Suga squirms and writhes in an attempt to get free.

“Is no one going to help me?! Hello?!”

 Oikawa pushesthe door open with his back, nearly whacking Suga’s head onto the dividing barbetween the double sides.

“You could’ve taken my head off!”

“You didn’t seem to care thatmuch the first time,” he says, a bit more clipped than intended.

“The first one couldn’t have been helped.”

Oikawa stops walking, looking down at Sugaincredulously.

“Couldn’t have been helped? Of course it couldhave been helped! If I had been paying more attention to where I was serving,then-“

“Tooru, you can’t blame yourself for playing thegame,” Suga says with a soft smile.

“Like hell I can’t when it means you gettinghurt.”

“Tooru, it’s really not that bad. I’ve had muchworse injuries before, you know.”

“Yeah, but those weren’t my fault,” he mumbles,staring straight ahead as he starts walking forward again.

Suga sighs.

“Please put me down, Tooru. It’s just a sprainedankle.”

“But if you don’t take care of it properly-“

“Take care of it properly?” Suga repeats incredulously. 

“Okay. What about your knee, then?”

Oikawa stops, eyes flaring dangerously as helooks down at Suga.

“Don’t,” he warns, voice low and commanding.

“You can’t lecture me about injuries when youneglect taking care of yourself, Tooru. It doesn’t work like that.”

“That’s different.”

“In what way? Please enlighten me in the waysthat my minor sprain needs to be taken care of more than your possiblychronically inju-“

Oikawa slides his arm out from where it was supportingSuga’s knees, leaving Suga to have to hold his ankle up before it slammed toohard onto the floor. His other arm remains supporting Suga’s back until he wasfully standing up straight, only removing it once he knew the shorter boy wasstable.

“It just is okay?”

“No. No it’s not different. You have to take careof your body the same as everyone else, or you won’t be able to continueplaying,” Suga chastises.

Oikawa laughs bitterly, and the sound nearlyfreezes Suga’s heart over.

“Do you think you’re the first one telling methis? I can’t do that, Koushi. I know very well that I can’t cater to my kneewhen there’s so much training that I have to do just to keep up with peoplelike Tobio,” he says darkly, years of disgust and pent up rage at the naturallytalented flowing from his mouth.

“Yes, you can.”

“Did you not just hear me? I don’t have time to-“

“If you can manage to care so much about me, thenyou can do the same thing for yourself, Tooru. I know you have it in you.”

“But I don’t…”

Oikawa’s gaze levels Suga, a dull and carefullyshrouded agony quietly revealing itself in the dark pools of his eyes.

“I couldn’t love anything… like I love you,” hewhispers, the torment in his voice enough to make Koushi feel like the floor was ripped out from underneath him. 

"Including myself. Especially myself.”

And if Koushi was already falling through the floor, then these words were him smacking the cold, rock-hard bottom.

“Tooru…”

He barely breathes the name, a single puff of aircharged with trying to convey the empathy and affection that he knew the otherboy needed.

“I don’t…I just can’t-“ Oikawa’s voice breaks,and Suga can see the subtle wavering of his lip as his eyes shine.

Koushi steps forward deliberately, his own pain completelydissolved as he gently loops his arms under Oikawa’s, nuzzling his face intothe taller boy’s slumped shoulders. He relaxed instantaneously upon contact,wrapping Koushi tightly within his arms, grateful for the comfort of havingsomeone to hold onto- for the comfort of being comforted.

Oikawa exhaled shakily, and Suga could feel thetremors of the air as it exited his lungs. Koushi held him even tighter,fingers gripping the back of his jersey as he waited for the breaths to evenout.

They stayed like that for minutes on end, thesilence between them a testament to how strong their bond was, to how comfortable they were just being in each other’s presence.

“Koushi,” Oikawa mumbles into the crown of Suga’shead.

“You can let go now, baby.”

Suga shakes his head no, humming something intoOikawa’s shirt.

“Why not?”

“Just ‘cause.”

“What?” Oikawa laughs, amused at his boyfriend’santics.

“I need you to know that I love you.”

Suga can feel Oikawa tense up slightly, so hepulls back to look up into the very red face of the taller boy.

“I love you, Tooru.”

Oikawa flushes even deeper, unable to maintaineye-contact for more than a second at a time in a way Koushi finds absolutelyadorable.

“You know that, right?”

“Y-yeah…I know…”

“You’d better,” Suga says, unlinking his armsfrom around Oikawa. He reaches up and pats his face with one hand, lingeringjust long enough to lightly drag his thumb across the apple of his cheek.

“Now, you head on back to practice, and I’ll takemyself to the nurse,” he declares, giving Oikawa a light shove in the right direction.

“But-“

“No ‘but’s.”

“Oh, alright, alright, I’m going,” he said with a last glance over his shoulder, throwing his hand up in a gesture of departure as he jogged down the hallway.

And Koushi watched his back as he moved away, sawthe long stride and confident step returning into place halfway back, shouldersbroadening and gaining strength with each step closer to his waiting audience.

As he reached the door he turned back, and thegenuine smile that presented itself on his face reassured Koushi that if therewas only one thing he could do for Oikawa Tooru, it was this: he could lovehim.

 He could love him enough to try and make up for all of his insecurities, all ofhis weaknesses, all of his fears. Not to disregard them-no, they were a part ofhim, ingrained into the person he was, into the person Suga loved. But he couldoffer him confidence in his love, could offer him a support and stability thatthe captain seemed to think he lacked on his own.

But Suga also knew one otherthing-one thing he was trying to help Tooru discover himself.

Oikawa Tooru was terrifyingly strong.