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The guy who arrived halfway through the practice match called out in a cutesy voice at odds with the mean smirk on his face “Yoo-hoo~ Tobio-chan!” and Hinata can only watch at first in a stupor as Kageyama tenses, muscles clenched so hard the veins on his forearms bulge.
Obviously there’s a history between the two setters that Hinata can only guess is bad. He sees the way Kageyama hunches into his shoulders and tilts his chin down, like he’s trying to starve off a cold breeze instead of words, as the not so stranger taunts him. The title ‘Genius’ sneered out more than a few times, each one causing a noticeable effect on Kageyama who fists his hands tighter and tighter.
That’s where Hinata was lost. Kageyama was just, well, taking it. Wasn’t trying to defend himself, not that he usually would, but wasn’t blowing it off either, which was more his style. Instead choosing to curl in on himself and wait out the brutal cut down.
Hinata hated it. Never wanted to see Kageyama crumble again – see him feel small. Hinata knows what it’s like to feel small and like hell if he won’t do a thing about it.
So he watches the guy – Oikawa – at all of their encounters, trying to find out what makes him tick while being purposely obnoxious enough that he cuts off any chance of attack on his best friend. Not that Kageyama has ever admitted to it but Hinata was almost positive he was his first friend ever. Which makes him the best. So, best friends, right? And best friends watch each others backs.
Outside the bathroom in Sendai City Gymnasium, months later, is when he finally finds the crack in Oikawas armor. An oblivious Japan – he should really remember the aces name – offhandedly remarks “You should have come to Shiratorizawa.” in that deep no nonsense voice of his before leaving.
Hinata – still backed up into Aone – catches sight of Oikawa mocking “YoU ShOUld HaVe CoMe To ShIrAtOrIzAwA” at Japans back – arms crossed tightly, hands bruising where they gripped as the captain bends forward – and it’s like a light bulb goes off in his head.
He’s heard it before, both in real life and in his nightmares, but usually it’s coming out of Ushiwakas stupid mouth.
“What did you just say to me?” he must be having an aneurysm or stroke, anything to make sense of what just came out of Mr. Refreshings mouth. The small talk was going fine as they greeted each other until Sugawara switched personalities with Oikawas biggest anger issue.
The beauty mark by his eye disappears in the crows feet as Sugawaras cheeks are pushed even higher up with how big his smile becomes “I asked how your team handled all the training for qualifiers.”
“No, no, after that.”
“Oh?” Sugawaras hand pulls back from the handshake to tap at his chin “Well you said the first years were driving you nuts and I offered advice.”
“Your. Exact. Words. Of. Advice.”
Sugawaras attention was pulled away by a fight starting up between the first year crows “You should have come to Shiratorizawa.” comes out, again, distractedly before he quickly excuses himself.
“That’s...what I thought you said.” he says to the empty space before him.
He tries to forget about the incident – blaming dehydration induced hallucinations – until it happens again. He’s in the middle of a match against the school made of giants when his life is once again flipped over onto him.
“Oikawa!” Iwa-chan calls out and he automatically sets a perfect toss for the ace. Iwaizumi blasting through their gigantic blockers and almost gaining the point until their number six saves it with a bone jarring dive.
He keeps a close eye on the ball as it’s brought back to their setter.
“Oh yeah,” the opposite of Karasunos libero in every way across the net from him suddenly spoke up “you should have come to Shiratorizawa.” then goes for a setter dump, hardly having to jump with his ridiculous height.
Oikawa can do nothing but scream as he gets hit in the face with the ball. And none of it had to do with pain.
Even though they didn’t make the cut for nationals – again says an angry voice in his head – Oikawa still dutifully goes to the practice matches set up and gives it his all.
The rival team, Johzenji, is a joke. They have to be. They’re quick, so their defense is average at best, but there is no offense at all to speak of. He gives up on taking the match seriously when they all start trying to play using only their feet.
“Did they just switch sports?” Iwa-chan asks after stuffing the attempt at a bicycle kicked point from their captain “It’s like they’re all soccer players.”
Before he can answer Johzenjis manager calls for a time out and he gets to see the once cute looking girl turn into a demon as she kicks out the legs of any player she could get while screaming at them.
“Still want a manager?” he hears Kyoken-chans gruff voice and turns in time to see Yahabas pale horrified face, eyes glued to the beat down, shake his head.
To her credit the cute manager somehow straightens them out, they start to play mostly serious after the time out, until they all look bored after losing five points.
The captain with the undercut and interesting mouth accessory misses an easy receive, too busy leering at Oikawa, and perks up. Snapping his fingers he shouts out “I know where I recognize you from!”
Oikawa looks around him before asking “...Me?”
“Yeah!” the spiky blonde hair goes bouncing along with the guys childish jumping “You should have come to Shiratorizawa!”
Iwa-chan chokes on his spit next to Oikawa. At least he knows he isn’t hallucinating now that there’s a witness. Oddly enough it doesn’t make him feel better.
“You don’t even go there!” he screams outraged.
“But neither do you.” the tongue piercing is on full display and he pulls his eye down to make the same face Oikawa uses to taunt Tobio-chan “Blegh!”
On the bus back to school Oikawa wallows across Iwaizumis lap “I can’t escape bastard Ushiwaka.”
Iwa-chan looks down at him and snorts “I always told you your shitty ways would come back to bite you in the ass.”
He pouts and slouches up to turn away from the betrayal from his best friend “You’re not even worried about me.”
“It was weird.” Iwa-chan concedes “Obviously. But he was probably trying to get into your head since we were winning. You always get into it with the guy publicly. He might’ve seen one of them and used it.”
“Iwa-chan, no.” he grouses “He’s not the first one to say that to me.”
“Well no shit.” Iwa-chan snorts “That’d be Ushijima.”
Oikawa groans at the name and gives up, shoving headphones roughly into his ears to block out everything.
He still goes to nationals. He’s never giving up on volleyball and knows a number of these players attending will be going into it professionally in the future so it only makes sense to get as much information on them as possible.
He’s casually browsing the merchandise tables, looking for a gift for Takeru, when a shadow falls over him. Looking behind him he has to crane his neck to see who the hell is hovering over his shoulder.
It’s not anybody he’s ever seen before. Tall and gangly with light grey hair and green eyes. He’d be intimidating if it weren’t for the stupidly bright smile that’s being shined down onto Oikawa.
“You are smaller than I thought you’d be!” is the first thing the guy says to Oikawa. Which, wow. He hasn’t been called small in years.
It brings him up short as his mind stalls. He finally settles on asking “Excuse you?” in the haughtiest tone he could muster.
“You should have come to Shiratorizawa!”
“Excuse you!?”
“Yes, I do need to excuse myself.” the stranger agrees happily. He goes to pat Oikawa on the head but misses when Oikawa hastily backs up into the table, the items closest to the edge get jostled off. The motion turns into the weirdest side wave Oikawa has ever seen. “I have a match coming up so I can’t talk long. Sorry to cut this short.” he pauses before laughing to himself “Short like you!” and jogging away into the crowd.
He watches the guy cause no less than three collisions before he disappears through a doorway and wonders “What the hell is going on?” A cough from behind him has him cringing away from the angry stare coming from the other side of the table.
“That’s what I’d like to know.” the stall worker pointedly looks at the merchandise on the floor.
“I’m telling you Iwa-chan, it really happened again!” he complains to his best friend as they move closer to the court to watch the Fukurodani match already in play.
Iwa-chan gives him a dead eyed stare “Are you losing it? No way some player, who you’ve never met or played against, said that to you.”
“It’s true!” he insists as he sees a flash of orange a few feet away and looks to find Chibi-chan waving around a blue shirt. Huh. Guess he’s feeling better since the crows defeat. Oikawa examines him closer to see the sheen of sweat coating his skin and how his chest heaves with each breathe before changing his mind. Chibi-chan still looks rough.
A holler of “My disciple!” draws his attention back to the court where the bug eyed captain is also waving back at Chibi-chan. Interesting. He didn’t know Karasuno palled around with any Tokyo teams.
He files the thought away as Fukurodanis setter pulls the aces attention back. The bug eyes scan across the people watching as he full body turns before his neck snaps around as he does a double take at Oikawa.
“No.” he whispers to himself as the crazy guy locks eyes with him and bounds closer. There’s no way it could happen two days in a row, right?
“Hey hey hey!” the beefy captain with the atrocious hair excitedly jabs a finger at Oikawa “You should’ve come to Shiratori-blahblahblah!” and Oikawa feels his soul whither away.
“Shiratorizawa, Bokuto-san.” the Fukurodani setter unemotionally corrects as he grabs onto the captains jersey and pulls him away.
Iwa-chans jaw is hanging as the next set starts “What the fuck.”
“That’s what I’ve been saying!”
Miya Atsumu, because of course he knows who the number one nationally ranked setter is, is washing his hands as Oikawa comes out of the bathroom stall after the last match.
“Heard somethin’ bout ya.” is said before Oikawa can introduce himself.
He feels his ego boost up at the words. He’s finally being validated.
“Little birdie told me" Atsumu fidgets with his hair in the mirror before pulling away to smirk at Oikawa "Ya shoulda come to Shiratorizawa.” the words deflate his ego quicker than a ball being pegged at his head from Iwa-chan.
Oikawa is left furiously mouthing curses as the bathroom door swings shut.
He leaves Japan to join San Juan after graduation. Not only because they’re a team that gets the most players in the Olympics every time, or the reason Oikawa strives to be a setter that could adapt to players the best after seeing them versus Japan when he was younger, but also because it’s literally the furthest he can get from Ushiwaka and the weird cult that follows him parroting that cursed phrase.
He runs into a not so chibi Chibi-chan on a weekend trip to Rio with some of his teammates, years later, and can’t believe his eyes. The little runt dominates on the sand and Oikawa knows he’ll be a monster on the court when he returns to indoor volleyball. How fitting that the two of them, who rely on hard work and perseverance, would both escape to the same part of the globe to remake themselves for the sport they love.
When they’ve finished catching up and reminiscing over dinner Oikawa feels better than he has in ages. The trips home on the off season always feel too short and being able to talk in his native language was a pick-me-up he didn’t know he needed. Feeling refreshed and recharged he sees Chibi-chan to the bus stop with a pep in his step.
The bus pulls up and the beach ninja takes one step on before turning around “It was great seeing you Grand King!” the genuinely happy expression on Chibi-chans face drops into a blunt look that fills Oikawa with familiar dread. He continues, voice dropping scarily into the exact same tone as Ushiwakas “You should have come to Shiratorizawa.” before flitting fully onto the bus, laughing the whole way.
Years and Kilometers away, Bastard Ushiwaka is still haunting him.
He’s finally done it. Proved it. He was on par, no, better than Ushiwaka. The look on the players of team Japans face as Argentina won gold in Olympics is something he will treasure. It made all of his sacrifices leading up to this moment worth it. Nothing could knock him down from this high.
Nothing except Sakusa Kiyoomi getting shoved in his direction at the after party. Bokuto is the one doing the pushing. None of this bodes well for Oikawa as he clings to Iwa-chan.
“Oikawa Tooru.” the disdain in Sakusas eyes unmistakable “Congratulations.” Iwa-chan is staring at Sakusa with an unreadable look and Oikawa doesn’t get the chance to question any of this before they’re interrupted by the worst person.
Ushiwaka nods gravely, like he’s been given terrible news “Yes. Congratulations.”
“I don’t need to hear it from you!” he can’t help but bite out. Sakusas eyes narrow even more making him instinctively pull Iwa-chan slightly in front of him as a meat shield. Bokutos large eyes peak over Sakusas shoulder before Sakusa grunts and jerks forwards. The face mask pulls tighter and his frowning lips could be seen through the material as he sends a scathing look at Bokuto.
Sakusa glances between Oikawa and Ushijima before deadpanning “You should have come to Shiratorizawa.”
Iwa-chan jerks in surprise as Oikawa feels a turbulent amount of something roll through him. It’s not quite furious, shock or alarm. But if they were stapled together and rolled in the broken glass of his innocence.
Ushiwaka repeats the solemn nod and agrees “Yes, Sakusa, he should have come to Shiratorizawa.”
Oikawas clenched mouth does nothing to dampen the scream ripping up through his throat.
Kageyama is confused as Hinata hangs off of him, almost falling to the ground with how hard he’s cackling. He had whispered something to Bokuto who then shot off to prod Sakusa out of the corner he had sequestered himself into. It lead to Oikawa having a melt down in the middle of this Olympic after party they were all contractually forced to attend. He sees one of the few broadcasting station camera men whirl around to point said camera in Oikawas direction.
“What did you do, dumbass?”
Hinata explains the eight year long torment he’s engineered on Oikawa – and why – in between bouts of laughter and Kageyama can’t help but join him in losing it.
“And to think all I had to do was show his social media profile to my friends and asked if they would say that to him if they ever saw him.” Hinata pulls himself together to wonder at how easy it was. He knew every time it happened – even seeing a couple – from the confirmation texts he’s gotten over the years.
When Kageyama finally gets a hold of himself, wiping away tears from laughing too hard, he pushes at Hinatas shoulder “You really are the best.”
“Best...friend?”
“Yeah.” he snorts at the realization that Oikawas angrily unnerved face was being broadcasted across the world “Best friend.”