Conquering the Great King

𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵 25

(𝘪'𝘷𝘦 𝘨𝘰𝘵 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘵 𝘰𝘧 𝘧𝘳𝘦𝘦 𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺, 𝘧𝘪𝘨𝘶𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘪'𝘥 𝘴𝘱𝘰𝘪𝘭 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘨𝘶𝘺𝘴 𝘢 𝘣𝘪𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘢 𝘵𝘰𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘯𝘦𝘸 𝘤𝘩𝘢𝘱𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘰𝘥𝘢𝘺 :) 𝘴𝘰 𝘦𝘯𝘫𝘰𝘺𝘺𝘺𝘺)
Something was wrong.

First of all, Oikawa was late. This in itself was unusual.  If they're waiting on anyone it's almost without a doubt Iwaizumi. Furthermore, Oikawa hadn't mentioned the possibility of being late, and this was the guy who gave a play-by-play of his day via text message.

Secondly, he had that smile he gets, the one that stretches far too wide across his face, like he believes if he covers his face with it then he'll be able to hide whatever emotions are lurking just beneath the surface.

"Iwa-chan," Oikawa chirped, squeezing his eyes shut as he forced that awful smile wider. "Are you ready to go?"

He was, but.

Iwaizumi blinked behind him, eyes scanning his apartment, "Uhm, yeah, would you mind waiting a second? I wanted to..." think faster Iwaizumi, "have a cup of tea to try and settle my stomach."

Oikawa cocked his head without changing his expression, hair bouncing, "Of course."

Iwaizumi moved into the kitchen. His stomach was fine. "How was work?" He asked, trying to sound natural. He could hear the tentative nature in his words and he inwardly chastised himself.

There was a pause. "Fine," Oikawa answered after a strange beat of silence. "Great," he amended.

Oikawa's lack of dialogue was unnerving. It was like speaking to an entirely different person. Iwaizumi walked back out into the living room. Oikawa was still standing by the door.

"I'm making enough tea for you too," Iwaizumi said, soft smile on his lips.

"Ah," Oikawa said, "Iwa-chan is so sweet." He still wasn't moving.

Iwaizumi settled on his couch, eyes on Oikawa. "I was starting to get worried. Since you were running late and never said anything."

Oikawa broke eye contact. His eyes landed in the direction of the wall, staring past it.

What the fuck.

"Oikawa," Iwaizumi said, making sure to keep any frustration he felt out of his voice. It came out even gentler than he intended, "what's wrong?"

Oikawa smiled that smile again, "Nothing Iwa-chan, silly. Traffic was bad, very slow."

Iwaizumi glared across the room at him, "Get that fucking disgusting smile off your face." Oikawa's eyes flew wide in shock and his mouth parted. "You're insulting me, Oikawa," Iwaizumi went on. "You're obviously upset. Please tell me why."

Oikawa looked away from him again. With his facade gone it was easy to see the hurt under his eyes, strange to see the discontent pulling at his lips. He shrugged off his coat and hung it on the rack. He shuffled over to the couch, flopping heavily beside Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi didn't force his gaze on him. He saw Oikawa lean his head back against the couch from his peripheral vision. he gave him a moment to think as he sighed long and slow.

"I lost the account," he finally said. "The one I went to the banquet for."

Iwaizumi pursed his lips. He could never overstate how much he understood the pain of work failure. "Oika--"

"We lost it to Tobio-chan's company."

Iwaizumi bit his mouth closed. There was a silence.

"I..." Oikawa paused, his voice low as he thought, "I knew Tobio-chan was better at this than me. It still hurts, though. I thought I had it."