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Oikawa didn’t speak, only flipping the pages of his book. He passed a few different pictures, showing a very young Iwaizumi and Oikawa – playing in elementary school, catching bugs, grinning while at someone’s birthday party. He landed on a picture from middle school where Oikawa and Iwaizumi were sitting in Iwaizumi’s living room, Oikawa grinning at the camera. Iwaizumi was side-glancing at Oikawa as he was in the midst of unwrapping something in his lap. They were wearing matching red and white Christmas sweaters, decorated hideously with big silhouettes of reindeers.

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Due to his parent’s busy work schedules and his older sister living with her husband, Oikawa spent most his time at home alone.

He learned to cook, he kept the house clean. Fed and played with the cat.

It wasn’t so bad. His parents really loved him. They kept in close contact with him, calling every second day and sending him text messages here and here. Occasionally his mother would ask to Skype. They left him enough money to buy all the food he would need along with a little bit extra.

They would always come home to be with him during the holidays.

Until, suddenly, they didn’t.

It was three days before Christmas when his father called him to inform Oikawa that they would not be coming home for the holiday. Their travel had been booked for that day, but due to inclement weather their plane had been canceled, and they were unable to fit in anything else during the holiday season. They wouldn’t be able to come home to see him until the 28th of December.

Oikawa felt his heart drop at the news, but he did his best to keep a smile on his face as he spoke on the phone.

When you smile while on the phone, the other person can hear it! He remembered his mother teaching him, when she had caught him on the telephone looking dreadfully bored, speaking with his grandmother.  

Oikawa remembered this advice, and used it to tell his father that he was okay. It wasn’t that big of a deal. They would just celebrate it when they got home. He wasn’t bothered by it.

He sounded so convincing that he was almost believing it himself.

Hanging up, he looked around at his house. He had taken the time to pull out all of their decorations – everything from the ugly, misshapen reindeer he’d made in the second grade to his mother’s favourite ornaments, carefully crafted and beautifully painted.

Instead of feeling joy, he just felt a pit in his stomach.

Everyone was away. His sister was spending time with her husband over six hours away, and he really didn’t want to bother her. Oikawa had no other family in the city – his family had moved here a few years ago, which meant anyone related to him lived too far away to visit. That left him to curl up on his couch, pop in his DVD’s ofFirefly and proceed to spend the next two days running through them, broken up with naps, food breaks and the occasional binging of Gravity Falls. He had just finished the final episode of the show and was about to pop in the disk for the accompanying movie, Serenity, when his doorbell rang.

Oikawa blinked, confused. His parents weren’t coming? Who was at the door, carolers?

He headed to the door, scratching his stomach and yawning. He hadn’t slept properly at night, too caught up in his show and the broken sleep was affecting him. He yanked open the door and was met with a familiar face.

Dark hair and even darker eyes stared at him sharply, taking him in.

“Oikawa? Everything okay?”

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