After All These Years (Iwaoi)

Home is When I'm With You

1:45 am.

He sat facing the window. It was dark out. Sunrise at 6:04. One hour of nothingness for Hajime Iwaizumi.

The tears had stopped. He had forced them to. Because time was fragile but Iwaizumi wasn't. He was strong.

1:46.

Time crawled along so slowly he could almost see the milliseconds pass.

He stared at the window. Maybe if he stared hard enough the sun would rise faster.

....

2:45 am.

Time to leave. Iwaizumi had painstakingly gotten up to gel his hair and brush his teeth, attempting to make himself look more presentable.

He grabbed the stack of letters he had collected and folded them neatly into his jacket pocket.

2:46.

Time to leave. He grabbed his keys again and walked out to his car. He got in and turned the ignition.

As he drove he passed the market with the milk bread, the now empty spot where kids would play, the cherry blossom tree. The world was so silent Iwaizumi could hear the blood rush in his ears.

"Come on Iwa-chan!! You're going to be late!"

....

He stopped.

Seijoh Public Highschool.

Seijoh Public Highschool Gymnasium.

But all he read from those signs was.

Home.

Three hours here, three hours back, and three hours back to Miyagi.

The river.

"The river Iwa-chan! Look how smoothly it flows... so beautiful."

"Almost as beautiful as you Tooru." He kissed the brunette setter's head tenderly.

Hajime walked behind the school, behind the place he had one called his volleyball court. He walked past the fountain and the cluster of trees that had been planted by the class a few years older.

He walked past the stairs that kids would sneak around and smoke on. He walked past his old classroom window. He walked and walked through the park until he came to the spot where they had always met in secret.

And sitting delicately in the center of a beautiful arrangement of white flowers, at the edge of the still and gently water, by the old and worn bridge...

Was Tooru Oikawa's grave.