Akaashi's 18th (and the events that followed...)

11. The Ace Returns

Daichi had a point. Iwaizumi knew that.

Despite protesting that he already knew Daichi's advice, hearing it from someone else just made everything seem more real. He wasn't around Oikawa all the time anymore. If he wanted any type of relationship with his oldest friend, he needed to be more proactive. Not waiting to be called or texted, but making more of an effort. Trying harder. Otherwise...

When he truly thought about it, the thing he had been pushing from his mind for the three months they had already been apart: the thought of losing Oikawa... he stopped, doubling over from the sheer jolt of realisation.

Daichi offered him a hand, which he took with a nod. He didn't have anymore time to think, however, as two familiar voices called them from the other side of the bridge.

"So slow, Hajime!" Oikawa winked at him, and he nodded, unsure what to do with himself. "Hajime?" Oikawa looked at him, eyes narrowed. "You look like you've seen a ghost."

Iwaizumi and Oikawa waved goodbye to Daichi and Suga, as the pairs separated to return to their respective accommodation. Iwaizumi noted the subtle change in the demeanour of the couple from when they were in high school. Their steps along the pavement were perfectly in sync, despite their slow pace and their awkward position from leaning on each other. Iwaizumi smiled a little to himself as he recognised a little of their behavior from the way he and Tooru were.

"So, back to our conversation Hajime~" Oikawa began with a smirk, "tell me about all those California girls you must be getting."

"Shut it, Tooru."

"Do they really have sunkissed skin, so hot they melt your popsicle-?"

Iwaizumi smacked the back of Oikawa's head. "Shittykawa," he scowled, as the other pouted, rubbing the back of his head.

"You're just mad because if I came over I'd steal them all from you," Oikawa continued to tease him for the rest of the walk.

In the end, they found themselves tossing around a volleyball in an abandoned park near to their hotel. Honestly, Iwaizumi hadn't expected anything else to happen.

"I've missed this, Hajime," Oikawa said, as he skillfully received the ball and dug it straight back.

"Missed what?" Iwaizumi raised an eyebrow, deliberately playing the fool.

"You and me."

Iwaizumi inhaled sharply, but brushed it off as a grunt as he hit the ball back, though he couldn't quite suppress the cough that followed it. "Nani?"

"Us playing volleyball. It feels so easy." Oikawa gazed longingly into the distance, catching the ball and tucking it under his arms, his back facing Iwaizumi. "Nothing's easy anymore. Not now." He smiled, and sighed softly. Iwaizumi tried to catch his expression, but it was gone in an instant, replaced with a pair of widened eyes. "Look, there's a long hedge over there - perhaps we could try spiking over it?"

"You want me to spike a ball over a bush?"

"Is that so hard for my Hajime? Are you, perhaps, out of practice?" Oikawa smirked devilishly.

Iwaizumi grinned. "Never."

Oikawa's face mirrored Iwaizumi's, as he spun the ball on his finger, striding over to the hedge. He tossed to himself a couple of times, a warmup that he frequently did before practising with a partner. Iwaizumi knew that the setter had done it so often it was practically ritual now.

"Ready?" Iwaizumi didn't need an answer, but he asked anyway. He jogged on the spot for a second, stretching out his back and hamstrings for a moment.

The second he started running towards his setter, everything came flooding back. The muscle memory, the exhilarating feeling of his feet pushing against the ground, his weight perfectly forwards to gain momentum, his arms flying back. Then the jump. Oh, how he had missed the jump. With one final step, he placed his weight over the balls of his feet and shot up.

As soon as his right arm drew back for the shot, he spotted the ball flying up to meet him in his peripheral. He knew Oikawa didn't have the ability to pinpoint his tosses as exact as Kageyama could, but with Iwaizumi, he didn't have to. It was muscle memory for the setter as much as it was for the spiker, memorising how high his spikers always jumped and what their favourite tosses were. Especially with Iwaizumi, who knew that Oikawa's toss always hovered for a millisecond in the air, even if nobody else could see it.

Iwaizumi knew that Oikawa could also feel the ease at which their play blended back together, as if they hadn't been away from each other for the past three months. The ball floated in the air, in exactly the right place - no rush, but no hesitation either.

As his hand slammed the ball down to the other side of the hedge, and he came down from his jump, he glanced over to Oikawa. The look of intense concentration, mixed with the faith in his best friend and a little spark of joy in his eyes, brought back a tidal wave of emotions that had lain dormant in Iwaizumi since they had last played.

For one brief moment, the slight tension between them, their reservations, and their separation, had dissolved into the gentle night breeze.

(Word count: 878)
(Total word count: 14,077)

Author's note:
Wow - thank you guys so much for 200 reads! I was worried that nobody would like/read my story (it's a bit of a slow-burn and a different style to a lot of fanfics so I wasn't sure anyone would like it). So yes, thank you so much for reading my story - I hope you're all enjoying it!