Haikyuu!! One-Shots

🖤Hey Iwaizumi || IwaOi🖤

    A/N: systemic lupus erythematosus is a real disease. I dramatized it for the sake of this story and made it worse than it normally is, but SLE is the closest thing I could find that actually exists to match what I came up with 

    "Hey Iwaizumi." Oikawa said quietly, sitting down beside the spot where his good friend lay. Tears pricked at the corner of his eyes, but he blinked them away. It had been a long time, he was thirty-four now. So much had changed. 

    "I met this boy a long time ago, a few years ago. Do you remember? I told you about him. His first name was Hajime, which I thought was pretty cool since it's your name, too. I was also a little scared since he had the same thing as you, too. I thought it might be a bad omen or something."

    Iwaizumi had an autoimmune disease, called systemic lupus erythematosus. It caused him severe pain throughout his body, having pretty regular attacks. Most people didn't have it too horribly, but he had all the worst symptoms.

    That had been when the two were eighteen, still in highschool. Now Iwaizumi was gone, and Oikawa sat at his grave. It was too simple, too plain for Iwaizumi. He deserved better. All it said was, "Iwaizumi Hajime, loving son and friend, June 10th 1994-July 20th 2012".

    It didn't do the justice to the pain he had gone through his entire life. It wasn't good enough for how much he had suffered. But it was the only proof he had existed. But in years to come, no one would know him. 

    He had wanted to get a degree in science and disease. He wanted to make cures for people like him, people who didn't have a treatment to save them from their pain, a vaccine to prevent it. He wanted to give hope. But nature, cruel as it is, had taken him before he could achieve that dream.

    So Oikawa persued it instead.

    "When I met him seven years ago, he was only ten." Oikawa continued talking to his friend. "He had been diagnosed with SLE, just like you. It was my job to try and help. At the time, all we had was things to help ease the pain he was in. That was the best I could do for him."

    Oikawa gave a small smile, a single tear falling down his cheek. "But that's not the case anymore. Three years ago, I finally made a development. It kills you because the cells are attacking themselves, right? Your brain thinks that there's bad cells in your body, but there isn't, so the only thing left to attack is yourself.

    "That makes is more of a psychological illness." Oikawa bit his lower lip, trembling on the ground as he sat. "So all you have to do is fix that. Reverse the signals that tell your cells to attack. You can't undo damage already done, that's impossible as of technology today, but after a few years, it will stop happening."

    Oikawa smiled, imagining how Iwaizumi might look, thinking about what he would say. He would surely role his eyes and smirk. Then he'd smile at him. It would seem like he was going to finally give a simple compliment, nothing more. He'd say something like, "So, Shittykawa finally did something with that mind of his." Oikawa would complain. They would laugh together. 

    That's what would have happened. Oikawa smiled, shaking with the sobs that ran through him. 

    "It worked, too." Oikawa choked out between sobs. "Hajime was one of the people we've been testing it on. He was fourteen when we started, it was finally starting to really get bad for him, since he had been attacking himself for eight years every day." Oikawa allowed himself a small laugh before his next sentence. "He's never dealt with it by hurting himself further like you, so I guess he's actually smart.

    "It slowly got better. After a few months... He reported the daily attacks were less painful. He went through a time when the attacks were sporadic and more painful in the second year, and then the third it kept getting better and better."

    Oikawa tried to give a happy laugh, but all it did was make him cry harder. His tears stained the stone beneath him, but he wanted to finish. There was so much he still needed to say to Iwaizumi. So much he wanted to tell him about. 

    "We checked him out today." Oikawa was barely audible. "He's all better. There's still damage from the eleven years he's been dealing with it, but we have medication to help deal with it. But he hasn't had a single attack in three months! Hajime is okay. It's over."

    Oikawa pulled his knees to his chest, wrapping his arms around them. He buried his face in the space between his chest and knees, body wracking with sobs. There was more. There was still more. He had to keep going, he had to. 

    "I'll keep going." He sobbed. He doubted the words were even intelligible at this point. "I'll keep finding these cures for them. People that don't have a medication to get rid of the pain. People who don't have a vaccine to prevent it. No one deserves that!" Oikawa screamed. "No one deserves that pain, no one deserves to have to wonder every day if it would be easier to die by their own hand! No one deserves to be afraid that every single day, they could fall over and never be seen again. No one deserves it..."

    If Oikawa had more to say, he couldn't remember what it was. All he could think about, all he could see, was Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi when Oikawa first found out that he was sick, only months before it would take him. Iwaizumi when Oikawa wrapped his arms around him and sat there while he screamed with the pain and agony that took over his entire body. Iwaizumi beside him as they walked together at their prom at Aoba Johsai. Their surprised smiles as they were announced as the winners of the "king and queen" of the dance. The team's playful "Eww!" when Oikawa leaned over to kiss him. 

    That same night, sitting on the bench, when Iwaizumi started coughing and shaking, telling Oikawa to get his phone, muttering something about 'failing'. Having to watch as Iwaizumi's older cousin took him away to the hospital. The next day, Iwaizumi telling him that he would die anywhere between three weeks and three months from then. Watching every day as Iwaizumi got the sporadic attacks. His pain was louder, longer. There were less amounts of time between each attack. 

    On July 20th, Oikawa's birthday, as Matsun and Makki decided to take Oikawa to a movie for it, but Iwaizumi couldn't go. Iwaizumi told him he would be fine. Getting the call from Iwaizumi's cousin that Oikawa needed to get there immediately. Seeing Iwaizumi lay on the bed, dripping in sweat. He was dying. Oikawa's tears falling quickly as he hugged Iwaizumi tight, watching the light and life slowly fade from his eyes. Iwaizumi having only one request. "Smile for me, 'Kawa. Just one more time. Please." And Oikawa did. He gave him a smile as he cried, shaking as he hugged him, smiling through all of it. Iwaizumi's limp body on the bed, where life would never come back.

    "Hey Oikawa." Said a quiet voice. Oikawa looked up, seeing Matsukawa who had spoken, Hanamaki beside him. "You look terrible."

    Oikawa nodded. "I want to be happy..." He trailed off with a sob. "But how can I? It's the day he died!"

    "It's the day you were born." Makki shot back. "It's the day you came up with this cure. It's the day you saved the life of Hajime. There are plenty reasons you should be happy."

    "Come on." Matsu said. "We got something planned for you. Please... At least try to be happy, for us?"

    Oikawa nodded. "Give me one second." He said quietly. 

    The two walked a decent distance away, watching him. "Goodbye, Hajime." He said quietly. "I never got to say it when you were alive, but..." Oikawa took a deep breath. "I-I love you... Iwa-chan."

    Oikawa could practically hear the words coming out of his friend's mouth. "Smile  for me, 'Kawa... Just one more time..."

    "I-I can't!" He screamed out.

    "Please..."

    Oikawa trembled and shook, standing up. He lifted his head slowly. He took a deep breath, holding his head up high. He wiped the tears from his face, and gave a big smile. 

    He ran over to his two friends. "Makki, Matsun, ready to go!" He said cheerfully. 

    If there was one person in the world that hid their pain with a smile, one person who's smile, big or small, real or fake, could make you believe he was there, one person who hid everything better than anyone could imagine?

    If there was one person like that, his name was Oikawa Torou