See you on Mars

4

      A month had passed and everything in the sanitarium followed it's usual schedule.
     "Good morning sleeping beauty" Iwaizumi said, who had stuck to his promise of saying that every morning.
    "Good morning Iwa Chan," Oikawa said, rubbing his eyes. There was a knock at the door and a nurse walked in.
    "Good morning Mr. Iwaizumi, Mr. Oikawa" Iwaizumi and Oikawa nodded since they couldn't greet the women back. "So, I have some good news for you Mr. Iwaizumi, you are allowed to begin walking on your own and going places on your own. You can begin going to the bathroom and outside with a nurses permission. You also will need a nurse to accompany you, just to make sure you're alright, but you will be able to walk. You also can speak, but try and keep it to a minimum, we also believe that there will be an opening in classes soon"
     Oikawa felt those words sting his chest as he knew that meant someone was going to, or already had passed.
    "Can I go outside now?" Iwaizumi asked
    "Yes, I can accompany you" the nurse smiled checking her watch.
    "Can I bring Oikawa? I can wheel him" Iwaizumi asked. Oikawa smiled from ear to ear as his heart was beating out of his chest, his attention shifted from the thought of the person before. He blushed a little bit excited that Iwaizumi cares more than he lets on.
    "Yeah, sure, just be careful and if he's too much to push I can take over." The nurse closed the door and walked out to get a wheelchair for the Oikawa.
   "Awww Iwa Chan you didn't have to take me" Oikawa blushed pretending to be humble
   "You're one hundred percent right, I can make her take the wheelchair back"
   "You're so cold," Oikawa shivered. The door opened and the nurse came back into the room with an empty wheelchair. The nurse put it next to Oikawa's bed and he sat down in the wheelchair. Iwaizumi placed his hands around the wheelchair and used it to help support his weight.
    He began walking and exited the room when the nurse opened the door for him. The two boys were fortunate in getting a kind nurse since most nurses probably would've denied the offer to bring Oikawa, or they would've been scolded because it wasn't difficult to figure out they had been talking.
    They walked through the long, cold, empty hospital halls as they approached the doors leading to the yard. Iwaizumi walked outside and cold air blew into his face sending a chill down his spine. He looked down at Oikawa who stared wide eyed at the changing fall leaves. Iwaizumi walked over to a bench and parked the wheelchair next to it.  He sat down and breathed in the cool autumn air. The nurse stood near the door trying to give the boys as much alone time as she can.
    "Oikawa" Iwaizumi said. Oikawa looked up at Iwaizumi not knowing whether to talk or not. "You can talk"
     "but there's a nurse right there, won't we get in trouble?" Oikawa whispered trying to not move his lips too much.
     "I doubt that will happen. That nurse seems to sympathize with her patients. She knows that not talking will probably help us recover, but that's not a fact. The fact is you shouldn't yell too much, but even in doing that survival is not guaranteed. The chances of everyone in our hospital room right now surviving  are slim to none. Don't even consider it a possibility, she knows that and these will probably be most of our final days so I guess she's trying to make our stay more enjoyable."
    "Don't say something like that" Oikawa replied
    "Why not I'm only saying the truth! Only an idiot like you would hope for everyone to make it out of here alive" Iwaizumi said as sternly as he could attempting to keep himself from yelling.
    "Look Iwa Chan, I don't want to have to think about losing anyone in that room. I know that it will happen someday, but today's not that day, nor tomorrow. What I'm saying is I'll think about it when the time comes but that's a problem for another day."
    "Oikawa I-"
    "Let's change the topic" Oikawa said waving his hands not wanting to talk about the inevitable
     "OK, what do you want to talk about?" Iwaizumi questioned
      "Do you celebrate Christmas?" Oikawa asked. Christmas was his favorite, the lights, the fires, the trees, and the songs. He had so many Christmas traditions that he would have to leave behind this year. He and his mother always baked cookies and played games with his whole family who always came over to celebrate.  Leaving it all behind would be hard for him, he was sure that the atmosphere at home significantly dropped and as much as he wanted them to have a merry Christmas, part of him was relieved that he was being remembered and thought of.
       "Yeah, do you?" Iwaizumi answered the seemingly random question
       "Mmm hmmm" hummed the pretty boy
       "I hope we're out by then" sighed Iwaizumi. Iwaizumi dreamed of a Christmas where he was celebrating with Oikawa. He remembered all the fun he used to have with his parents on Christmas but nowadays it was just a reminder of what he was missing. Yet, something in his mind knew Oikawa could fill that void.
       "Yeah, that would be the best Christmas gift" Oikawa smiled to himself thinking of what it would be like, getting to spend Christmas with Iwaizumi..
       "It really would."
        "Iwa Chan"
       "What is it?"
"You know, there's something special about you. I can't really describe it, but you have this way about you that is just so captivating to me. You always act pessimistic but I don't think that's how you really feel. You try to act more pessimistic than you are so you're not surprised when something bad happens, but that's not the real you, is it? I know that in that way we're probably opposites, yet we're still after the same goal"
    "What are you talking about"
Oikawa just chuckled and looked up at the sky. Iwaizumi looked over at the boy who was smiling at the sky. His heart started racing and he looked back away from Oikawa trying to collect his thoughts. 
     "Boys, I think it's about time we head back in now" The nurse said. Oikawa snapped back into reality and looked at Iwaizumi who made eye contact with the pretty boy. They nodded and Iwa stood up and grabbed Oikawa's wheelchair. He walked into the hospital with the nurse walking behind him. They walked into their hospital room and sat back on their beds.  The door closed and the boys continued talking.
     "Iwa Chan, I want to know more about you" Oikawa said catching Iwaizumi by surprise
     "What do you mean know more about me? I'm seventeen, I play volleyball, and I don't like the kids from school. What more do you want"
    "I want to know what's going through that head of yours. You're usually so quiet but I can tell you're thinking of a lot. You're hopeful more than you let on, I think you hide your emotions from us and yourself. Why? I mean I don't understand why someone wouldn't want to be hopeful" Oikawa was a perceptive person and had a talent for knowing somebody's true thoughts.
   "Why? look Oikawa it's just how I do things, I've always done shit that way and I'm not gonna change for someone who's probably gonna die and leave me" Iwaizumi barked. Oikawa heard what he said loud and clear, he knew that he didn't intend the message to come across like that but he wasn't sure exactly how to decode it. Still, the sting didn't fade, his words carried a harsh impact.
   "I'm not going to leave you Iwa chan-"
    "So what are you going to do? Is the tuberculosis magically going to leave your system just because you tell it 'sorry but I can't leave, I told this random guy at the hospital I wouldn't leave him'" Iwaizumi said rather calmly yet Oikawa sensed a strong sense of passion in his voice and knew all those words were his exact thoughts. Iwaizumi knew he was hurting Oikawa but he was trying to protect himself. As much as he tried to convince himself otherwise he didn't think of Oikawa as some random guy in the hospital. Iwaizumi knew that Oikawa was likely to die and the only way to cope with that fact is detaching himself, or not getting attached at all.
    "Look Iwa Chan, I don't know who you think you are but you are not just some random guy at the hospital. Is that what you think of me as? Just some random guy you met at the hospital?" Oikawa asked Iwaizumi's words starting to get to him. Iwaizumi refused to put down his wall and replied,
    "What do you want me to think of you as? My best friend? My soulmate? Yeah good luck with that. There's no point to it if you're just gonna die anyways"
    "I think of you as my best friend yeah I've said that before but I never threw around the term soulmate. You came up with that all on your own which means, you really do care more then you let on. Remember there's always some truth behind words, nothing is ever completely made up." The pretty boy's voice filled with some hope
    "That was said sarcastically and you know that. Also I said you were some random guy at the hospital, so does that mean I think that's true?"
    "Do I? You told me that you didn't think of me as a best friend, which makes sense since I said best friend earlier, but to think of saying soulmate means that somewhere in that head of yours you've thought of me as your soulmate before and you've been trying to convince yourself that i'm just some rando you met here which is somewhat true, but it's not what you really think." 
   "That's not true" Oikawa giggled at Iwaizumi and just smiled. He knew he was right but decided to lay off since there might be more pieces he wasn't connecting.