Picturesque

“Mm, Iwa-chan,” I hummed as he older male kissed the side of my neck. Early morning sunlight filtered into my bedroom as the two of us laid naked, side by side, in my bed. Iwaizumi had his arm wrapped tightly around my waist as I opened my eyes slightly, glancing over at him.

“Good morning, Trashykawa,” he muttered, a small smirk playing at his lips as I rolled on my side to face him before feeling his hand on the small of my back. We weren't dating, but we had shared a bed together quite frequently these past few months; being teenage boys, we both had needs.

“What time is it?” I asked as he leaned in, kissing my neck once again. In the mornings he was quite clingy, and I leaned into his touch, sighing softly as I heard him chuckle.

“Does it matter what time it is? Today is Saturday so why don't we stay in bed for just a little bit longer?” Iwaizumi whispered and I sighed before he pulled me closer to him.

I shut my eyes for a moment, taking in his scent of sweat and faded musky cologne before muttering, “Fine, but not for too long. Okaasan is coming home today and they might need me to come and coach the young, future volleyball stars this afternoon.”

Iwaizumi faintly nodded his head, not even making a comment about how I referred to the kids as I curled into his chest before he rested his head atop mine. The two of us were extremely close, but we both knew that this could never be a relationship.

“Oikawa?” I heard my childhood friend murmur as sleep weighed down my body once again.

“Yes, Iwa-chan?” I responded, my fingers running slowly across his chest.

“Do you still think about him? Even after all of these years?” Iwaizumi muttered and I sat up slightly, staring into his chocolate orbs. I wondered why he asked me such a question before I settled down once again and shut my eyes.

How could I not think about him whenever I had to put on a white knee supporter every game? Why could I not go halfway through practice without wondering how far he's gotten in life? Which high school does he even go to? He's a first year, right?

My throat tightened slightly as I swallowed, whispering, “Yeah. Yeah, I do. I should probably stop, but I just can't.” A nervous laugh left my lips and I felt the older male's fingers run through my hair.

My heart was thrumming against my chest and I sighed, “I want to forget and just move on, but I'm stuck. I love volleyball and I shouldn't want anything else, but...”

Iwaizumi lifted my chin and I stared at me before he kissed me on the mouth. A soft moan escaped from my throat as I allowed his tongue to explore my mouth and I sat up a little further before he whispered against my lips, “Don't worry, Oikawa, I'm here to help you forget.”

The two of us broke away from each other and I knew that there was truth in his words. Deep down inside, I knew that my best friend was harboring feelings for me, but sadly he knew that I could never return them out of fear.

Slowly, I drifted back to sleep, laying on his chest and listening to the beat of his heart, the rhythm similar to that of mine when Kageyama was around.


“Okaasan,” I muttered, brewing tea as I stood in the kitchen in a pair of boxers and a large shirt. Iwaizumi had only left a little over fifteen minutes before my mother came home and I watched as she sat her purse on the counter, taking a seat on a barstool before sighing. I glanced over at her with worried eyes, pouring her a cup of the steaming liquid before pushing it towards her.

“H-How was your trip?” I stuttered, staring at her. Because of her job, she would leave on business trips quite often, but she put food on the table and that's what mattered the most.

“Tooru, how have your volleyball practices been? I'm sure you've been leading your team well with your position being captain once again,” she said, smiling and ignoring my original question. I could see the fatigue in her brown eyes and I knew the expression she wore was fake.

I took a sip of my tea and said, “Ah, we've been doing great. Iwa-chan and I have been practicing before school like we used to; we're determined to make it to nationals finally this year.” I grinned, giving her a small thumbs-up and stuck out my tongue.

A soft chuckle left her lips as she said, “I'm sure you will, darling. You work so hard every year. Why don't you invite Hajime-kun over for dinner one night when I'm not busy? It's been a while since I've seen the two of you together outside of school.”

Faintly, a blush spread across my cheeks and I nodded my head. Just as I was about to open my mouth to speak again, her phone began ringing. She rolled her eyes, reaching for the device and I glanced down at my cup of tea, listening to her side of the conversation.

“Oikawa,” she answered. There was a pause as her eyes went wide and she shouted, “He did what?! I'm going to--”

There was silence once again as she clenched her hand into a fist, sighing loudly, “But I just got home! My youngest son is here and I'd like to spend a little time with him before--”

She knitted her eyebrows together as she was cut off again. I watched as she pinched the bridge of her nose and groaned, “Fine, but I better get paid for this.”

My focus turned solely to my hands wrapped around the warm mug of liquid as the call continued. Mom was never around and when these types of things happened, they never fazed me much; it takes time, but you get used to being alone.

She hung up the phone, almost throwing it back into her bag as she shook her head and said, “I'm sorry, Tooru. One of my idiot underlings messed up our sales numbers and it's caused a disaster. They need me back at the office and--”

“Okaasan, it's okay,” I said, faking a smile for her sake as she held a neutral expression.

Her brown eyes bore into me before she stood up, walking over to me as I leaned down. She placed a kiss on my forehead and hugged me tightly, saying softly, “I'll make it up to you. Maybe we'll go out for sushi one night; my treat.” She flashed me a grin and I slowly nodded my head.

“Love you, Okaasan,” I muttered.

“I love you also, Tooru,” she sighed before letting go, grabbing her bag and heading out the door quickly.

I stood at the window, watching her leave like I did when I was a little kid before turning away. My eyes locked on my cup of tea before I dumped out the liquid, suddenly deciding that I didn't want it anymore. I tugged at my hair before heading off to my bedroom, trying to chase the thoughts that were running through my head.

Even though I was so used to it, I hated being alone; I just needed to get out this house to clear my head.


My hands were shoved in the pocket of my hoodie as I walked through a park, glancing around to see if I could find my nephew. My brother had told me to meet the younger male after I texted him and asked if I could come over; of course, he also had to be busy with work, but he said that Takeru was antsy being stuck in the house for so long.

As I looked around, my eyes locked on the black haired boy I was searching for. He clutched a volleyball tightly in his hands and a soft smile crossed my lips. Last year, my brother had taken him to one of my matches and shortly afterwards, the younger male became hooked.

“Tooru,” Takeru said as I approached him with a soft smile crossing my lips. He held out the ball to me and I took it as he asked, “Is there any way that we can have a match today? I want to practice; it's been a few days and I want to get stronger like you!”

“Ah, little Take-chan looks up to his oji-san? I never thought I'd see the day that you'd utter those words!” I boasted and my nephew made a face, looking away.

“Please don't get full of yourself. I mean, I can just go back home and bother Papa; I'm sure he'd enjoy that,” Takeru muttered, glancing over at me and I shuddered. I really didn't want a call from my brother complaining about how I couldn't even watch my own nephew.

“Fine, fine, Takeru. Come on, I'll make a few phone calls and see if we can borrow any of your volleyball classmates today,” I said, running a hand through my hair before handing him back the ball and pulled out my phone.

My nephew smiled as he twisted the volleyball in his hands and I scrolled through my contacts before dialing a number and listening to it ring. Takeru seemed content with playing a game with his friends and I just loved to see him flash that grin when he played; like me, he loved the competition the most.

“Hello?” I heard a female voice say and I smiled.

“Hi, my name is Oikawa Tooru, I coach your son's volleyball class and I was wondering...”


“Nice serve!” A little girl with pigtails yelled. Takeru glanced at her and smiled as I stood on the sidelines, watching the other team receive the ball before working together to send it towards the net. I had to say, in the past couple of months that I had been teaching these kids, they had improved significantly and I was impressed.

My arms were crossed in front of my chest as Takeru scored his team another point and I had to contain my excitement, restraining my cheers so that I didn't make the other kids feel left out.

A boy on the other team, one that had came with his older sister today, stood at the corner of the court, shaking. I could tell that he was nervous, possibly because he was next to serve. As far as I knew, this kid had little to no experience with volleyball and he had only came because his sister made him.

Slowly, I made my way towards him, calling a time out as the other kids dispersed, grabbing their water bottles. The boy looked at me with dark blue eyes that reminded me of someone important in my life and I smiled. Leaning down, I looked directly at him before asking, “You're worried, aren't you?”

He chewed his lip, nodding his head. “What if I mess up? I-I don't want to miss my serve and have everyone laugh at me,” he muttered, looking down.

“You know, I was really bad at serving when I first started out,” I said, grabbing my chin in thought, “Actually, I was bad at everything; I couldn't serve, spike, and I once took a ball to the face while receiving.” The boy giggled and a small smile played my lips, “My true calling was tossing the ball to my teammates though.”

His blue eyes stared at up at before he stuttered, “C-Can you teach me how to serve?”

I nodded my head, calling the kids back and stood next to the boy, holding a volleyball and meeting my nephew's eyes. He smirked, knowing how I was about to serve and muttered something to his teammates; Takeru and I had practiced quite a bit together on my days off.

Giving the boy simple instructions, I demonstrated how to do a regular serve, sending the ball off to the other side of the court. Takeru received it, struggling with the force as I had aimed it specifically at him before glancing down at the blue eyed boy and whispered, “Want to see something that took me years to master?”

He nodded his head vigorously before I shouted, “This won't count as a point so watch out, kiddos. I'm gonna show you something that maybe you'll be able to do one day with enough practice.” The kids moved out of the way and I prepared myself, throwing the ball up in the air before running up to jump.

My hand hit the ball with a force that caused a cocky grin to spread across my face. As the ball smacked loudly on the other side of the court and gravity brought me back down, I felt my ankle shift and I winced, suddenly unable to put my weight fully on it.

I acted as if I was fine though. I gave a small smile, to the astonished kids, watching as they continued to play and slowly, I sunk down to the gym floor, trying to ignore the throbbing sensation in my ankle. There was no way I could be injured so close to our volleyball matches beginning and I knew that if I was, then everyone would feel let down because I was trying to show off for a couple of kids.

“Tooru?” Takeru said after his game was finished, looking down at me, cocking his head to the side like a puppy would. I sat there, staring up at him before he asked, “Are you okay? I-I noticed after you did that jump serve you didn't say or do much else...”

I chuckled lightly, trying to stand to my feet before I limped heavily, fearing that I may have done some major damage to my leg as I handed Takeru my phone, muttering, “I hate to do this, but call Okaasan... Let's just say that I may have hurt myself while giving you guys a show.”

Takeru stared at me for a long moment before snorting and saying, “Oh this is going to be a great story to tell to Papa.”


“What did I tell you about playing volleyball without stretching first? On top of that, you weren't wearing your brace, Idiotkawa!” Iwaizumi yelled as I sat on his bed, my crutches laying nearby. I frowned as I had already received this lecture from my mother, “You do remember what the doctor said? If you put too much strain on your knee then--”

“Iwa-chan, I know,” I said, remembering the doctor's words perfectly; me even playing at the moment went against his wishes, but I just couldn't give it up and we all knew that for a fact.

He crossed his arms in front of his chest, asking, “How long are you going to be out for?” His eyes bore into me and I looked away.

“Two weeks. They told me that I was lucky that it was just a light sprain.”

He snorted, sitting down next to me before muttering, “Once again I'll have to play captain and we'll have to have a stand-in player as our setter.”

Looking down at his hands he was twisting his fingers together as he was becoming more stressed. He mumbled something I couldn't hear and I hooked my fingers under his chin, tilting his head. He stared at me with brown orbs for a long moment before I leaned closer to him.

“Don't stress so much; it's only two weeks and the teams we're playing in the next few practice matches can easily be wiped out. Besides, you may be hot-headed, Iwa-chan, but you're a good leader; almost better than me,” I sighed, grinning as he nudged his nose against mine, our lips ghosting each other.

He kissed me softly and I wrapped my arms around him, pulling him closer. This is how we got rid of our problems; this is how we forgot them. Ever since we were little, we always found comfort in one another, but it just escalated to this as we grew older.

“Ah...” I hissed as we fell down onto the mattress, his lips trailing down my neck before I knotted my fingers up in his spiky hair. He nipped at my skin and I moaned before he whispered into my ear, “I need you right now to just get everything off my mind, but I don't want to hurt you...” He glanced down at the brace on my ankle and I sighed, shaking my head.

“I'll be fine, Iwa-chan,” I muttered as before he stared at me for a long moment, giving me a kiss that I slowly melted into.

He wasn't the only one who needed this... and he knew that for a fact that I always kept thinking about a pair of forbidden blue eyes. He always knew that, that boy sat in the back of my mind.


The day I was cleared to begin practice once again was the day we had a match with a former powerhouse school named Karasuno. I walked down the hall, listening to the sound of shouts, the squeak of tennis shoes, and the screech of a whistle. The game sounded as if it was going strong and I grinned, my hands shoved deep in the pockets of my jacket.

As soon as I walked into the gym, I saw the score, cringing slightly as I noticed that Karasuno was winning, my team close behind. I snorted, walking up behind the coach before saying, “Oh dear, so you've had one set stolen out from under you.”

The coach whipped his head around, looking at me and asking, “Oh, you're back! How's your ankle?”

I smiled, rubbing the back of my head, “Perfectly fine! I can attend normal practices; it was just a minor injury after all.” I heard the girls from the female team cheer my name and I gave them a small wave.

“Honestly, be more careful, Oikawa,” Coach Irihata muttered and I said a small apology before he continued, “Besides, I was worried you wouldn't make this match. You're the one who asked to play against Kageyama and what were we supposed to do without our official setter?”

Kageyama? I never asked to play against him because I knew I needed to stay away from him... I glanced around to the other side of the court before meeting stern blue eyes and noticed that he no longer had those round, childish features that I last saw, but instead he had grown up to be a fine young man. Id' be lying if I said that he wasn't attractive.

My heart pounded in my chest as I tried to keep up my cocky attitude, the girls cheering for me in the background, mute. I met Iwaizumi's eyes and my image almost cracked as he looked sad before I drug my eyes back to Tobio.

“Hey there. Long time no see, Tobio-chan. You've really grown,” I said, smiling and giving him a wave. He didn't respond as he muttered something about me to a boy with bright orange hair and I smirked, deciding that there was only one way that I could really get under his skin. “How's the “King” doing?”

The younger male's expression into a look of annoyance as my heart raced in my chest before the coach shouted, “Anyway, go warm up! And be more careful than you usually are!”

My gaze held Tobio's for just a moment long before I walked off, feeling Iwaizumi grab my shoulder as he muttered, “Behave... I did this for you. I want to... to prove a point. I wanted to show that you should go after him because I've seen the way you look at him, Shittykawa.”

I stared at him with wide eyes before moving away from the game, pulling off my jacket and slipping on one of the green practice jerseys, watching the match continue. I stretched out, slipping on my knee supporter as a small twitch ran through my leg. Now wasn't the time for this to happen; now wasn't the time for me to fail.

My eyes glanced to the score, Karasuno at a match point as we were three behind them. I had been watching their players as they awkwardly fumbled around Tobio for a while and in my head, I set a plan of attack. I approached from the back of the gym and sighed, “Oh dear, we're in quite a pinch, aren't we?”

“What about your warmup?” Coach asked me and I smiled, giving him a smile and hummed, “I'm all done.”

Coach called for a player change and I approached the court, giving a high five to Kunimi as he wished me the best of luck. I thanked him, taking my place at the back of the court as someone threw me a volleyball. I flipped it around in a my hands a few times before looking up at my opponent and smiling.

I caught the prodigy's eyes for a moment before mine moved towards a blond haired male with glasses. I raised a finger to him, pointing as I called out, “No matter how strong your offensive power may be, if your attack doesn't connect, then there's no meaning in it, is there?”

A smile slid across my lips as I aimed at him, sending the ball off and watched as the boy ruined his receive, the ball ricocheting and almost hitting a girl viewing the game. I watched the shocked expressions fall across the members of Tobio's team and the blond rubbed his arms, wincing as they stung from the amount of force.

“Yup, just as I thought. I noticed it while I was stretching, you, #6,” I said, gesturing to the blond, “and #5,” moving my hand to the ginger, “are bad at receives, right? I'm assuming you're first years.” I smirked and all of the team stared at me before another ball came my way and I cooed, “Here's another one, okay?”

The boy fumbled once again, one of his teammates in the sideline shouted what I assumed was his name as a look of agitation crossed the blond's face. My eyes fell over to the scoreboard as I mused, “Oh, just one more point and they'll be equal.”

“Hey! Grand King! Aim it at me too! Right here!” The ginger boy yelled and my attention was drawn to him, questioning the nickname that he had just called me.

The blond reprimanded him, telling him not to shout, but he frowned, just staring at me. My knee twitched as they muttered to one another, Tobio standing off to the side as I noticed that their captain had changed their formation slightly. I knew what he was doing as he tried to protect his team from every serve I threw and I sighed, just shaking my head.

“But you know, by yourself,” I muttered, voice growing louder as I tossed the ball in the air, running to serve, “you can't protect everything!”

As soon as the ball left my hand, I saw Tobio's eyes staring at me intently. His expression told me that he had heard that line before and I felt my heart race in my chest along with the adrenaline of the game.

Crack!

“Fu-” I gasped as I hit the ground, clutching my knee and hissing.

“Oikawa?!” Iwaizumi shouted, running towards me with wide eyes. The coach stood to his feet and my teammates soon followed as I laid there. My childhood friend tried to pull me up, muttering to himself that it was just another sprain, and I shook my head.

The two of us knew that this was it for me and there was no denying it. He was with me when I first found out that I tore my ACL back in junior high and the more I put myself out on the court, the bigger I knew the risk was of me making it worse since I had blown off the thought of surgery so many times; there was no way that it could be fixed now.

“This is all my fault... If I hadn't of...” my childhood friend muttered and tears pricked my eyes.

Everyone was talking around me, but I was silent, only a sad chuckle leaving my lips. My eyes found the team on the other side of the court as they watched, a set of blue eyes worried as they focused on me.

I should have listened to my mother's words and forgot him when I had the chance, but I just couldn't let him go and in the end, this is what I got.

I lost my first love.