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

27. To the Top

Sofía rolled her eyes, nudging Yahaba on the way to where he and Iwaizumi stood. Oikawa checked to make sure his best friend was looking before he began phase two of 'notice me, Iwa,' but when his eyes found his best friend, the sight in front of him made him feel physically sick...

"Here, I won't be needing this when I'm climbing," Iwaizumi said, as he handed Yahaba his thick hoodie  - the one Oikawa liked to wear when he stayed over, just to annoy him - which Yahaba promptly pulled over his shoulders. Iwaizumi turned and grinned wolfishly at Oikawa, who felt his face burn. How dare his Hajime flirt with someone else? They were just getting somewhere, balancing their new life apart. This was the last thing he needed.

"Are you two fighting or something?" Sofía asked, as she tied up his ropes, looping them around his waist and thighs.

"Huh?" His gaze snapped down to her.

"You and Iwaizumi-kun," she said, giving him that look. That look Iwaizumi gave him when he lied and said he hadn't been overdoing it with practice. That look that let him know she had seen through his flirting antics. She leaned closer as she clipped the loop of rope to the carabiner. "Why do you need to feel validation by flirting with other people and irritating the ones you actually love?"

"Well, that was just what low self-esteem does to people, I guess," Oikawa offered up a sad smile. A wave of defeat had crashed over him. Was that always how it felt when someone you liked flirted with another person?

Oikawa stared up at the rocks leering over him, shaking any thoughts of his Iwa-chan from his head. He had another mountain to climb first.

Once he had begun the route, Oikawa realised that he possibly wasn't the best climber. Surely it would be easy, with his stamina and balance? But with every foothold he reached for, every time he pulled himself up another step, the rocks above seemed to become more and more difficult to find and grab. Maybe Kyuu wasn't as simple a scale as he had predicted.

And the worst part was, Iwaizumi had already reached the top, and was leant over the cliff's edge, chatting casually away to Yahaba, who was standing with Sofìa at the bottom of the rocks. Oikawa cursed himself - he was too slow, in more than one sense. If he could have just confessed to Iwaizumi a week, a day, even an hour earlier, he would at least be saved from the torment of not knowing the other's feelings.
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"You're just saying that because you're chicken." Suga jabbed him in the stomach, and Oikawa doubled over.

"Of course I am!" He looked up at Suga, a mildly irritated blush colouring his cheeks. "D'you really think I want to lose my best - and possibly only true - friend?"

"That's a gamble you'll make only if you think the risk is worth it." Suga shrugged, noting the way Oikawa looked as though he'd just been stabbed in the heart and softening his tone. "But if you think about risk, what's even the worst that can happen? Rejection? Things are awkward for a couple of months, then you're back to being friends?" Suga stuffed his hands in his coat pockets, "I don't know Iwaizumi half as well as you do, but in the event that you told him you liked him romantically and he didn't like you in that way, do you really think he would let something so trivial get in the way of a friendship he clearly values so much?"
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It had been so simple, yet the right time to confess had never seemed to arrive. Oikawa fought through the pain in his arms, blinking back frustrated tears. He hadn't jumped at the chance quick enough, and now Iwaizumi was getting back at him. Was he that angry at Oikawa?

He grabbed another armhold, pulling himself up to the next ledge with jarring force, yelping out loud. He touched a hand to his cheek. It came away sticky, wet and crimson.