Kindergarten Bully [Oikawa Tooru] | ✔

Until She Came Along

If I know what love is, it is because of you.

— Herman Hesse

xXx

When Naoko had come to him for that favor—asking him to give the shy Fujikawa Haruka some backing—the first thing that came to Oikawa's head was to unashamedly exploit the situation to his own benefit.

He thought he would have been content with staying friends with her, but apparently that was no longer the case.

The words had spilled out of his mouth before he even got to think about the ramifications.

"Let me take you out on a date once the election's over."

Which brought him to now.

Oikawa yawned as he stood in line with Naoko by his side, waiting for their turn to collect their tickets at the single ticket booth the cinema had. In hindsight, it probably wasn't the best idea to only have on ticket booth installed, but the owners were pretty old-fashioned as well as influenced by the western cinema. He looked down at his watch—they'd been standing here for nearly fifteen minutes already.

"Tired?" Naoko turned her head to him slightly.

"Of course not," he said lightly. "We did cut off our jogging time by twenty minutes, you know. I'm perfectly fine, Mako-chan." He pulled her into a side hug. Her body was totally limp as she allowed herself to be embraced by Oikawa. "Are you worried about me?"

"Don't flatter yourself," Naoko said wryly, no real malice in her voice. "And what are you doing?"

He let out a mock exasperated noise. "I thought we went over this already. Mako-chan. This is called... a hug. Do you remember what those are?" Gehh... she's so... dense when it comes to showing affection. He thought he would have minded more, actually, considering he was quite the touchy-feely kind of guy. Oikawa couldn't even count the number of times Iwaizumi had punched or hit him because of his public displays of friendly affection. But, strangely enough, this rather... cold side of her (let's face it, which side of her isn't cold?) wasn't something he disliked.

"I'm not stupid," Naoko answered, shaking her head before leaning into his touch. "I just want to know why you keep... hugging... me." Is it really necessary? No, it wasn't. ... But I don't really mind. At any rate, it was better than her... friends... dog piling her. Then Midori had proceeded to cry over Naoko's supposedly busted spleen.

"Because I like you," Oikawa said conversationally. Despite the autumn chill, he found himself collecting sweat at the back of his neck. He tugged at his scarf a bit to loosen it. "When you like someone, you hug them. And you're very warm too."

"... Thank you?" She sounded confused and Oikawa had to resist the urge to laugh and ruffle her hair. "... You're warm too. I guess," she added, sounding just a tad awkward.

Someone coughed behind them and they turned. A middle-aged man was giving them a pointed look. "You know," he said, "the line moved up."

"Sorry," Oikawa apologized politely, pulling Naoko closer to his waist as he led them both forward.

"Kids these days," the guy muttered under his breath. "Spend too much time going out and not studying..."

"Old fart," Oikawa mumbled quietly.

"He's not that old," Naoko pointed out, equally quiet. "You'll look like that in a few years."

Oikawa recoiled, horrified at her comment. "Mako-chan! How could you?" Tears comically poured down his cheeks. "Wuuu... Mako-chan, so mean..."