And All the Prince's Men (haikyu)

𝘗𝘢𝘳𝘵 12

It takes a week to get everything ready. It takes a week to to talk to the guards about transferring. To inform his fellow servants. To stake out a spot in the trainee squad. It takes a week but he does it. There is only one thing keeping him.

Oikawa knows too, because he's smart. He has picked up on everything Iwaizumi has been doing, on his distance, on his frequent meetings in the barracks. He knows what he is doing but he can't make sense of it. Of why his best friend in the entire realm has stopped giving him the light of day. Has started fulfilling his duties to the bare minimum in silence, locking himself in his own room as much as possible.

But he does know what is coming. What Iwaizumi has been building up to for the past week. And it terrifies him. So he hides. He keeps busy. To delay it. To pray this just blows over. To wish everything could be ok. Why is everything not ok?

Iwaizumi manages to corner him in a secluded area of the grounds one evening, request in hand, and face full of resolve. They had barely spoken this week. Oikawa growing more frustrated and annoyed and angry. Iwaizumi growing more nauseous and resolute. When they meet in the middle it is an explosion of misery.

"I'm not signing it," Oikawa hisses, smacking the paper away from him as if it offends him. (It does.)

Iwaizumi keeps his face as neutral as he can, bending down to pick it up, "Please sign it."

"I'm not signing it. I'm never signing it. What is this about, Iwa-chan? I don't understand!" Oikawa's voice is shrill and it breaks Iwaizumi's heart further. It hurts to hear his Prince like this. And because it hurts so much he knows he has to do this. He grows angry at Oikawa for prolonging the moment.

Iwaizumi holds the paper out again, "Please sign it."

"Is that all you're going to say to me? I take you in for five years, I give you all my secrets, and this is all you give me?"

Iwaizumi feels his hands fisting at his sides, "All I give you? I have given you everything!" He snaps, a righteous anger coursing through him, and he latches to the feeling, because it is better at filling the gaping hole in his heart. His tone is hateful, "I served you hand and foot for five years, you ungrateful brat!"

Oikawa is taken aback, eyes flashing red in his own fury, "How dare you speak to me like that! Remember who I am, I'm the first Prince of Aoba Johsai!"

And Iwaizumi feels venom fill into his mouth like bile rising up his throat, "That title is worthless and we both know it. Soon enough you'll be enjoying your life free of suffering, being waited on hand and foot like always at the Shiratorizawa castle, and you'll only need to spread your legs for Ushijima to attain it. Poor you."

There's a crack in the air, and Iwaizumi falls to his knees, clutching the side of his face. He blinks back tears, looking up to see the Prince towering over him. Thick horns spiral from his head, eyes red, a darkness clouding around him. He looks terrifying, and for the first time, Iwaizumi feels fear grip his heart when he looks at Oikawa's foreign face.

(But his hands aren't talons, Iwaizumi thinks in the back of his mind, and his slap did not break my skin."

"I may have a worthless title, but at least my life has value. Remember, Iwaizumi, you were nothing before I chose you and you will return to nothingness without me." Oikawa picks up the paper, eyes dark and empty, "I'll sign your request if you are so desperate to be rid of me. I won't keep you here. I'm not a monster." He scratches his signature into the page with his pen, throwing the crumpled sheet on Iwaizumi's fallen form, "I hope you enjoy your newfound freedom, Iwaizumi Hajime."

Oikawa turns, making his way back toward the castle. Iwaizumi stands up, rubbing his face and holding the sheet of paper tightly in his fist. He thinks of calling out to him, but his voice is gone. Escaped in the midst of the fight, as if his soul had left him. As if a part of him so central to himself had left him.

He turns and walks the opposite way, towards the barracks. Feet heavy with each step but heart hardened by resolve. The fight had proven how necessary this was. Oikawa had revealed his demon self in a flash, had not even thought of the consequences of being seen in such a state.

Iwaizumi knows he is doing the right thing.

But it still kills him to do it.