Takeru remembers ‘Tobio-chan’ clearly now. He’d taken a photo of the boy and his uncle. Afterwards, Tooru kept looking at it and laughing maniacally to himself. And then he kept looking at it, with somewhat of a wistful expression.

“I—!” Uncle Tooru gawks at him.

Takeru’s mother’s expression turns extremely sly. “What’s this, Tooru? Do you have a little crush on our national setter?”

Wait, what?

“Mum, what’re you talking about?” Takeru puts his phone down.

“Why, Tooru’s ‘Tobio-chan’ is none other than the Japanese men’s national volleyball team’s setter, Kageyama Tobio!”

“The K-Kageyama-senshu?!”

Takeru doesn’t even know how to begin to process this. Kageyama Tobio is so cool. He went to the Olympics at nineteen.

Everyone loves Kageyama. His uncle isn’t special.

“Oh my god.” Is his uncle hanging onto the past, back when he was Kageyama’s senpai, because he can’t move on or something? He thinks he read a storyline like that in a manga. “Uncle Tooru. You are so lame.”

His uncle actually looks hurt. Before he can defend himself, Takeru’s grandma innocently pipes up.

“Oh? Is Tooru seeing someone?”

Now Uncle Tooru’s face turns beet red. He holds his hands out in front of him and pleads with them all.

“Please. Can we just— calm down for a sec?”

Uncle Tooru turns to Takeru first.

“Not cool, Takeru. Don’t bully your elders.”

Then he looks at Takeru’s mum. “You’re not funny, shut up.”

And before he can be chastised for his language, “Dear mother. Of course you would be the first to know if I started seeing anyone.” Uncle Tooru says his next words very deliberately and slowly. “Since you have not heard anything, it clearly means that I am in fact not seeing anyone. Least of all Tobio— Kageyama-senshu.”

A moment passes. And then Takeru’s mum singsongs, “But I bet you wish you were~”

Uncle Tooru glares at Takeru’s mum, but then he sighs. With his head on the table, he says, “Yeah. Maybe. Fuck. Maybe I’ve just wanted Tobio all along.”

For some reason, Takeru’s mum sends him a glare after Tooru says this, as if to tell him, this is your fault.

Takeru throws his hands up. He didn’t mean to send his uncle into a crisis! He didn’t think old people even got crushes anymore! God, Tooru looks worse than when Takeru’s best friend’s crush started dating someone else.

“Alright, I’m out.” Takeru’s mum stands up and Takeru goes to follow. She stops him in his tracks. “Oh no you don’t. Why don’t you stay here with your uncle? Kageyama is your favourite player, right? Maybe you can bond over your shared love for him.”

Takeru shudders. He does not think the admiration he has for his favourite volleyball player is the same as the yucky gooey feelings his uncle has for his once-kouhai at all.

“What a lovely idea!” Takeru’s grandma says.

Then she takes her daughter’s arm and the two of them leave.

Takeru is left in the room alone with his uncle, who still looks defeated. But hey, surely it can’t be that bad, right? Takeru’s seen how Kageyama interacts with other people outside of matches. He’s sure he’s nice, or something. If Uncle Tooru were just to talk to him…

“Do you have his number?” Takeru asks suddenly. Not because he wants to play wingman for his uncle—that’s beyond gross—but because he’s realised that he could actually meet Kageyama some day if he and Tooru start dating. Even if the thought of that is pretty gross too.

“Wh— And what would I do if I had his number, Takeru?” Uncle Tooru says, exasperated.

Takeru shrugs. It’s not like he’s ever asked anyone out before.

“Dunno. Text him? Shouldn’t you know? You had a girlfriend that one time. How did you get her to date you?”

“What girlf—”

“The one that dumped you and you got all depressed about it.”

“I— That was— She—” Tooru tries and gives up. Then he groans. “Tobio’s just… different, okay?”

“Because he’s a dude?”

“I mean— Not just that?” Uncle Tooru is making a weird face. Like he can’t really believe that he’s talking about boy feelings with Takeru.

Takeru can’t believe that this is happening either. And he really wants to go back to playing on his phone, but he feels bad if he just leaves Tooru alone, so he tries to cheer him up.

“Well, he’s really cool and all, but you know, you’re not that bad either. And you play for the national team too, even if it’s for another country, so like… He probably wouldn’t say no?”

“Takeru…” Uncle Tooru kind of looks like he might cry. Takeru hopes he doesn’t and is already preemptively moving away. “When did you grow up so much!”

And then Uncle Tooru is holding his arms out to hug Takeru, and he’s so fast that Takeru can’t avoid it, and it’s really not that bad actually, even if he’s blushing from his uncle’s words.

Uncle Tooru,” Takeru asks when the hug has gone on too long, “can I go now?”

Tooru lets him go, smiling at him.

Takeru picks up his phone and starts to look for his mum, but stops before he leaves the room entirely. Uncle Tooru is on his own phone now, looking at a picture of something.

“Um. Good luck, I guess?”

Uncle Tooru laughs and waves him away.

tooru shows up to the next family gathering with tobio in tow AS HIS PARTNER and takeru is sooooo starstruck and cannot stop talking to him and hovering around him actually and tooru is like psst buzz off i wanna spend time with my boyfriend but takeru is like

YOU WOULDN’T HAVE A BOYFRIEND IF IT WASN’T FOR ME

and then maybe tooru has to tell tobio the story about how his nephew helped him realise he had feelings for tobio and tobio is chuckling and tooru is: enamoured while takeru is: starstruck

tobio, beautiful and handsome: haha. i guess i have you to thank for then, huh, takeru?

takeru: t-there’s nothing to thank me for omg kageyama-senshu you are so cool i watch all of your matches and can i just ask you how in your last match did you—

tooru, pushing takeru aside: okay okay this is not an interview don’t you have some homework or something to do?

takeru, grumpily stomping away, muttering to himself: stupid uncle and his stupid stupidness.

tobio, later: he’s sweet.

tooru: he's a brat.

Oikawa has no plan. His feet had simply taken him here and he let them. He doesn’t know what to say, so he just watches until Kageyama finally glances up and spots him.

In Oikawa’s defence, Kageyama doesn’t say anything either. He seems confused, but he approaches Oikawa all the same. Maybe Tobio-chan has some unfinished business of his own.

“Ah. Hello.” Oikawa gives an awkward wave when the silence has stretched for too long. “Fancy seeing you here.”

Kageyama glances behind him, at his school which he just walked out of. He gives Oikawa a funny look.

“I go to school here.”

Oikawa lets out an exasperated sigh. Why does he try?

“I know. I just—”

He just, what? How does he begin to explain this to Kageyama, when he can’t even explain it to himself? 

Why is he here? Kageyama isn’t anything to him. Aside from the one year at Kitaichi where Oikawa was Kageyama’s captain and senpai, they don’t have a relationship at all. Considering everything, Kageyama should just be another volleyball rival to him. Oikawa would certainly never dream of going to Ushiwaka’s school and waiting for him like this. 

So why Kageyama?

That itch is back again. Kageyama is simply standing there, staring blankly at Oikawa, while Oikawa feels like he’s losing his mind. He doesn’t get it. Or he does, but he doesn’t want to acknowledge it. There is something about Kageyama that won’t let him move on. 

And it’s a hindrance, because Oikawa leaves for Argentina in a few months. He doesn’t know how long it’ll be until he comes back. In that time, who knows what Kageyama will do? Will he meet new people? Will there be someone else he admires? It’s unlikely anyone will be as great as Oikawa, but will he— 

Will he replace me?

He needs to do something, he realises. So Kageyama will remember him, because Oikawa is not done with him yet. 

It happens in the blink of an eye.

One moment, they’re staring at each other.

In the next, Oikawa is cradling Kageyama’s cheeks with his hands. He doesn’t miss the way Kageyama had flinched, blinking one eye open at a time when he realises he hasn’t been hit. It’s one of Oikawa’s most shameful memories. His face burns with it. 

Again: why is he here? With the boy he nearly hit three years ago, a boy he should want nothing to do with? How has Kageyama been able to keep such a grip on him all this time?

“Oikawa-san?”

Kageyama’s voice snaps Oikawa out of his spiral. 

He’s so close. He has to gaze up at Oikawa, which is unexpectedly cute. Were his eyes always this pretty? Oikawa frowns so he doesn’t do something stupid like kiss him.

Kageyama’s eyes flick down. Only briefly, but Oikawa catches it. Where is Kageyama looking? Is he thinking the same thing?

Why does Oikawa want to kiss him?

Would it be so bad if he did kiss him?

“What is it?” Kageyama asks again. He is still letting Oikawa hold him.

“Just— Close your eyes.”

Kageyama, the ever obedient kouhai, does as Oikawa says.

Oikawa keeps his own eyes open. He wants to see Kageyama’s face when he kisses him.

He cannot believe he is about to kiss him.

He leans in close and closer still, until he can see Kageyama’s lashes flutter in anticipation. And then, because he is perhaps not as brave as he thought he was, he closes his eyes.

The kiss is chaste. Their lips barely touch. Yet Oikawa feels it even after they part. It leaves an ache in his chest that he is not unfamiliar with.

Oikawa does not open his eyes right away. He does not want this moment to end. 

But they cannot stay here forever.

The expression on Kageyama’s face is not one that Oikawa likes. It’s too open, too full of hope. Oikawa knew this would happen. He doesn’t want to deal with the aftermath of what they’ve just done, Kageyama’s feelings or his own. Can’t they just have kissed and have that be it? It doesn’t need to mean anything. 

Even though, in reality, it means everything. 

“What—”

“You better—” Oikawa cuts Kageyama off before he has the chance to speak. His heart is beating so fast. He’s still thinking of their kiss. You better not forget me. You better meet me on the world stage. There are so many things Oikawa could say. So many things he doesn’t. “You better show everyone at Nationals how we do it in Miyagi.”

“Wait, Oikawa-san—”

Oikawa doesn’t wait. He turns around and walks away, fast, before he does something as stupid as kissing Kageyama again.

“I’ll catch ya later,” he tells Kageyama with a wave, hoping it’ll be enough.