Colours of His Eyes

Chapter I

You see colour for the first time the second you lock eyes with your soulmate. Naturally, what usually strikes people is the colour of their soulmate's eyes. Some people notice other things, like their freckles or their hair or their lips, but most of the time, it's their eyes. They spend years and years afterwards, trying to describe that moment, trying to pinpoint the gorgeous colour that bloomed before them, the first colour they ever saw.

Tooru had looked in the eyes of many, many people, but not once had he seen the colour.

Since he was young, he had been looking forward to the day that he would find his soulmate, and he would be able to see the greens of the leaves and the pinks of the blossoms on the brown trees against the blue sky. His mother had told him that colour was beautiful, that it made the world seem complete. So Tooru waited patiently for the moment everything would be completed.

It never came.

He was five, the day he walked outside with his homemade alien hat of foil and promptly bumped into someone a little larger, falling on his back and looking up in surprise.

It was the boy from next door. They had never really played together, but Tooru saw him sometimes, running around the woods next to the park, hunting for bugs. As he stared at him now, the boy looked down and met his eyes, blinking as if startled before glaring and holding out a hand.

"You wanna get up from the ground, stupid?"

"Mean!" Tooru pouted, taking the offered hand nonetheless. "I'm Oikawa Tooru! I live next door to you!"

A grunt came in reply. "Iwaizumi Hajime."

Iwaizumi stood there, as if waiting for something, holding a jar and a butterfly net, bouncing on the balls of his feet. He was staring curiously at Tooru, biting his lip. Why was he still standing there?

"Ah! You wanna play with me, Iwa-chan?"

Surprisingly, Iwaizumi didn't protest to his new nickname. He just scowled deeper, nodded, and turned toward the park, still holding Tooru's hand.

They quickly became friends in the days that followed. Tooru loved the way Iwaizumi's rough hand always seemed to find its way to his own pale one, how he would flash a grin after catching a beetle, how he tried to hide his laughter when Tooru made a bad joke.

Tooru wasn't sure why Iwaizumi stuck with him, though. He got to thinking that maybe it was just his natural charm.

When they were just kids and everything was simple, nothing really mattered except the next episode of their favourite show and the jars of bugs that quickly piled up on Iwaizumi's shelf. Tooru hardly ever thought of his soulmate when he was with Iwaizumi, unlike before, when he would spend hours thinking about what 'turqouise' looked like. With Iwaizumi, he didn't have time to wonder about trivial things like that. He was caught up in the moment; the hill they race up and the branch he trips over every time, the thump of his thin arms against the volleyball they had found abandoned in the park, the gentle buzz of cicadas during the last days of summer as they collapse on the grass watching the grey sunset. He was content to think only of Iwaizumi in those peaceful moments.

He was his best friend, after all.

They were as close as two kids could get, talking and laughing and making up the future. They ended up in the same class their first year of school, and every year of primary school after that. They clasped hands as they stood by each other in line, Tooru beaming and Iwaizumi frowning, that same gruff, lovable frown he always seemed to have. They ate lunch together and threw around that beat-up old volleyball until they were called back in, and they always walked home together. The teachers were used to addressing them together, more than seperately. They were Oikawa and Iwaizumi, Tooru and Hajime, and no one bothered to question it.

The March before their first middle school term, they spent almost every day at each other's house. Iwaizumi was practically a family member.

Their days consisted of hastily eaten meat buns and a newer volleyball (which Tooru had gotten for his previous birthday. He missed the old one from the park, but it was well past its prime). The sun rose and immediately Tooru & Iwaizumi were outside, running around and practicing and giggling about simple mistakes. The evening came far too quickly, every time, and they were never ready to say goodbye.

They had both decided on Kitagawa Daichii for middle school. It had a good volleyball team, and they were ready to graduate from Little Tykes. Tooru could practically feel the waves of excitement on their first day, although Iwaizumi kept it hidden fairly well as they went to introduce themselves to the coach.

He was certain he had left a good impression, but they ended up as second string players that year. That didn't stop them from practicing as hard as they could and hoping that they'd be able to stand on the court someday.

Their second year, they were still as inseparable as ever. They made the regular team, and Tooru was proud to say the he was pretty depended on by his teammates.

He wanted to keep that dependence.

He wanted so badly to be a reliable part of that team, it turned into wanting to be the best. He wanted to win.

And in order to win, you have to be better than anyone else.