Chapter 4

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"But Iwa-chaaaaan," Oikawa's voice whined through the speaker on Iwaizumi's phone, "I wanted to go grace the new karaoke bar that's opening tonight with my beautiful singing, but my sister decided to just up and leave Takeru with me so that she and her husband can have some 'alone time,'" he gagged. "Obviously I can't just leave him here. Please come over so I don't have to wallow in self-pity alone?"

Iwaizumi rolled his eyes so hard that he was surprised they weren't rolling across the floor right then. He let out an exasperated sigh before going to answer. "Oikawa, I-"

"And before you say that you can't or anything buzz-kill-y like that, we can do whatever you want! We can order takeout from anywhere you want, or pop some popcorn and watch a movie, or-"

"Look, I wish I could, but I have to study for this test tomorrow. This section is kicking my ass and I need to get a good grade. My mother might skin me alive if I come home with anything less than a C..." he trailed off at the thought of incurring the wrath of his mother and shuddered. She may be small, but she was scary. "Also, I thought I told you not to bother me tonight?"

"...we could watch your favorite Godzilla movie again?"

"No."

"We could do face masks?"

"Why the hell would I want to do that?"

"Self-care is important, Iwa-chan, you won't be young forever," he sighed dramatically before continuing; "we could scroll through instagram and make fun of people?"

"Tempting, but no."

"I'll give you a shoulder massage?"

Oikawa would sometimes massage the other's shoulders after a particularly stressful day or difficult practice to help him loosen up, and Iwaizumi hadn't typically thought anything of it, other than that his friend was just helping him out. But something about being offered a massage right now hit him differently. Before, it was just his friend being nice...but now it was the thought of Oikawa's slender but strong hands on his shoulders, squeezing and running them down his arms, the good type of pain that would come from his thumbs digging in deep, the warmth from where the touch would linger...

"Hellooooo? Iwa-chan, are you still there?"

Iwaizumi gulped hard and took in a shaky deep breath before giving his answer. "Fine, but only so that you'll stop pestering me." Smooth.

"Ha! I knew I could get you to come over," Iwaizumi could practically hear the cocky grin that was most definitely plastered on his best friend's face right now. "Be here in ten! I'll be waiting!"


Iwaizumi was standing in front of Oikawa's door exactly ten minutes later, trying to force himself to knock. Okay, Hajime, just knock, it's not that hard. Just knuckles on the door. You know how to knock, don't act like you've forgotten. You can do it. I believe in you...You can't do it can you? Okay, let's try this. You're going to count to three, take a deep breath, and then knock. Yeah, that'll work, thanks man. Any time, me.

He took a second to compose his thoughts and counted to three, taking a big, deep breath in and-

"Yahoo! Umm, are you okay?" Oikawa had swung open the door and was now staring at Iwaizumi, whose cheeks were puffed out.

"Ah! Oi-Oikawa. Y-yeah, I'm all good, everything is good here!" Iwaizumi squeaked out before deepening his voice. "I was just...doing some breathing exercises? Yeah, breathing exercises. I've been trying them out lately, supposed to help with your health or something like that. Been doing them every day. I forgot to do them earlier, though, and figured I should do them now." Yep, totally believable.

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