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They’re the last people staying behind at the shoe lockers. The entire day had squeezed every ounce of energy out of them and what more with the various finals coming and the graduation fast approaching, it’s enough to make the four of them tired to the bone by the end of the day.
Matsukawa’s already tying his shoes, Iwaizumi already finished and is now just waiting for Oikawa who among them seems to be the fastest to recover and always seems to have spare energy left no matter what he does what with the enthusiasm he has as he’s humming.
Hanamaki’s leaning on his own locker. He hasn’t even taken his shoes out because it takes too much effort. He’ll probably crawl home if he has to.
Matsukawa notices this, of course he does and he always will. He walks over to Hanamaki and taps him gently on the shoulder.
“Hey, we should get going.” He says.
Hanamaki leans back and gives him the smile he usually reserves for him alone and he nods.
“I know, sorry.”
“That’s okay, Makki,” Oikawa chirps, sitting beside Iwaizumi at the bench now. “I know you’re tired.”
“Yeah, not everyone has the energy that levels yours, Shittykawa.”
“Iwa-chan! Jealousy is so unbecoming—ow!”
Matsukawa snorts.
“You’re just happy because your college application got accepted.”
“Ah—” Oikawa shuts his mouth, smile of victory on his face and his cheeks a little pink. Beside him, Iwaizumi is clearly trying to hide his own smile with his hand, failing either way.
“Well, yes,” Oikawa says, proudly. “Everyone gets excited when you get accepted,”
“But it’s not so fun to spend four more years with a brat—”
“Iwa-chan,”
“ANYWAY,” Iwaizumi smirks. He looks at Matsukawa and Hanamaki with a raised eyebrow.
“You’re both going together, right?”
Hanamaki’s face heats up so fast he wants to stick his head back into the shoe locker.
Luckily, Matsukawa is more composed and a more mature human being than he is.
“Yeah,” Matsukawa nonchalantly saves.
It wasn’t really something they had planned. Hanamaki hadn’t really settled for a university then. But then one time Matsukawa mentioned how it would be nice to see someone familiar on campus, teasingly laughing at Hanamaki while he tries to calm his heartbeat, Hanamaki may or may not have looked up the university Matsukawa was talking about—a few blocks away from where Oikawa and Iwaizumi were going—immediately afterwards.
But there were other pressing matters too considering Hanamaki passed and he’ll be bound to see more of Matsukawa in the near future and even the possibility of being roommates—it makes Hanamaki’s heart run a mile, pounding loud in his ear as though he’s back in court.
It’s a pressing matter he doesn’t even know how to handle.
“Are you rooming together?” Oikawa asks innocently however that makes Hanamaki slam his locker door a little too harder than needed and he’s freezes for a second before realizing none of them really noticed.
Matsukawa blinks and Hanamaki laughs uncertainly. They haven’t really talked about it.
“Mattsun will be sick of me,” Hanamaki says.
Matsukawa looks at him and makes a face but then he rolls his eyes, a smile playing on his lips.
“I wouldn’t doubt it,” he says, lightheartedly.
“Oh but it would be better to room with someone you’re familiar with, right?” Oikawa says, grinning. He turns his grin to Iwaizumi. "Right?"
Iwaizumi looks amused. "Riight...well as long as Hanamaki gets his supply of profiteroles you won"t be killing each other, right?" Iwaizumi jokes and Matsukawa scoffs indignantly.
"That"s right." Hanamaki says, smiling to himself.
Matsukawa stays over a few nights after, a normal thing usually since he stops by often or as Oikawa had put it, close-neighbor privilage. They"re lounging in Hanamaki"s room after playing a game and it"s just comfortable silence for half an hour until Matsukawa clears his throat and murmurs, "Hey, Makki."
Hanamaki looks up from the pillow he"s buried his head in and looks at Matsukawa who"s sitting cross-legged on the floor though facing Hanamaki"s bed. He"s leaning his chin on the edge of the bed.
"What is it, eyebrows," Hanamaki says.
Matsukawa clicks his tongue. His hair is terribly messy, longer curls meeting his undercut and Hanamaki is almost tempted to just reach out, have him an inch closer so he can run his hands over—
"I was thinking," Matsukawa says, sounding a little hesitant.
Hanamaki sits up and leans on his elbow, raising an eyebrow.
"For once, really?"
Matsukawa grins. "Yeah, really."
Hanamaki waits.
"What do you think of...er, being roommates? With me, I meant. Being roommates with me."
Ah.
Hanamaki"s heart is going off again this is horribly unfair and all he hopes for is that he doesn’t look as flustered as he feels.
He musters a smirk nevertheless.
“Well if you can stand me, that is.” Is all he says as affirmation before burying his head back to the pillows, one hand squeezing the shit out of one of them so hard it just might rip.
When Matsukawa looks away himself, on the other hand, a faint blush is creeping up his cheeks just the slightest.
Graduation day rolls around at the same time the cherry blossoms bloom. Aoba Johsai’s stadium is crowded with parents, visitors and students. The ceremony was relatively concise followed by the awarding of medals and much to Hanamaki’s amusement, Oikawa’s sniffs all through his speech as valedictorian. When he finished, the volleyball team, who’d come to see the third years off, were cheering loudly by the bleachers.
It’s a disarray of students looking for their friends and parents afterwards and Hanamaki’s sure his own parents are somewhere around as he pushes through a sea of people. But he’s looking for another person instead, in another class as he unceremoniously rips the second button of the uniform he’ll no longer be using.
Hanamaki doesn’t find him though. He looks around and sees Oikawa sobbing unashamedly on Iwaizumi’s shoulder, not caring for once that his horde of fangirls are looking at them with hearts in their eyes. Iwaizumi is patting his back noncommittally, mumbling soft there, theres. Hanamaki doesn’t see what the fuss is about. They go to university together after all.
Iwaizumi returns his feelings too.
Hanamaki turns away to go look again until he bumps into someone taller than him that he stumbles back slightly.
Hanamaki blinks and sees it’s Matsukawa and his heart shoots up his throat, button suddenly heavy in his pocket.
Matsukawa seems extremely relieved to see Hanamaki and he goes, “Jesus, Makki I’ve been looking for you.”
Hanamaki takes a few seconds to compose his face before he manages to smile teasingly.
“Oohh?”
Matsukawa rolls his eyes but he smirks, hands noticeably behind his back.
“Yeah, come here for a second.”
They make their way out of the stadium to go to somewhere private, Hanamaki walking ahead as Matsukawa follows.
“Mattsun?” Hanamaki asks when they finally find some place quiet. He faces Matsukawa, a little baffled.
Matsukawa runs a hand through his hair, eyes shifting as though finding the right words to say.
“Um, congratulations,” he murmurs.
Hanamaki breaks into a grin and he chuckles.
“You too, jerk.”
Matsukawa smiles. “Yeah, so anyway I wanted to talk to you,”
Hanamaki blinks. “I was looking for you too actually but okay, go on.”
Matsukawa purses his lips, thoughtful again and then, “Give me your hand first.”
Hanamaki furrows his eyebrows, confused.
“Huh?”
“Your hand.”
“Damn, okay, okay—” he extends a hand to Matsukawa and just hopes it doesn’t feel as cold as he thinks it to be as Matsukawa wraps his own warm hand around it.
“And close your eyes,” Matsukawa says.
Hanamaki takes his hand back so quickly, looking at Matsukawa with a suspicious air.
“If this is some prank you’re playing, Issei, you’ll be paying for it until you graduate college.”
Matsukawa laughs, chiming and he nods.
“So distrusting. Not a prank, I swear.”
Hanamaki makes a face and does it anyway. He closes his eyes as Matsukawa takes his hand again and god does he have to do that? Hanamaki can hear his pulse in his ears.
This is a bad idea, this is a bad idea, this is a bad—
Matsukawa presses a small circular object on Hanamaki’s palm, making Hanamaki instinctively curl his fingers around it and he feels surprise, eyes snapping open so fast as he recognizes the shape it’s—
Identical to the one on his pocket.
Hanamaki wishes his gasp isn’t too loud but it probably is since Matsukawa steps back just the slightest as he lets Hanamaki take it in.
“I-Issei…? What—?” Hanamaki wheezes. What’s an appropriate response here without screaming?? He should ask Oikawa sometime.
Hanamaki looks up at Matsukawa then and he sees, with utter delight, that Matsukawa is hiding his face behind a small bouquet of red carnations, the tips of his ears as red as the flowers and Hanamaki’s chest is doing funny fireworks and warm things.
“Hold on, hold on, give me a moment,” Matsukawa stammers, voice slightly muffled by the flowers.
Hanamaki laughs, a little choked, definitely weak. Confused, disbelieving and just really—
Cheering inside.
“What’s going on, Issei?”
Matsukawa extends the flowers to Hanamaki, hiding his face with the back of his hand.
“Just take them and the rest of my dignity will you—”
Hanamaki laughs again, stepping closer to him this time and trying to forcibly take Matsukawa’s hand off his blushing face and god he’s just so—
“Hey,” Hanamaki implores softly.
Matsukawa looks at him now, really looking at him with no more evading air.
“I like you.”
Hanamaki’s second gasp for the last twenty minutes gets caught in his throat and he’s standing there blinking furiously, forgetting how to breathe momentarily, unsure if this is real life or a simulation.
“Y-You—” comes out as a shaky exhale.
Matsukawa rubs the back of his neck.
“Yeah. I just wanted you to know that so you’ll have time to think about it and change your mind with being my roommate in case it makes you uncomfortable considering I just blurted that out I am mortified—”
Hanamaki grins, hugging the flowers close. He’s slowly snickering in glee even as Matsukawa looks at him anxiously.
“Makki, I’m sweating here, stop laughing…”
Hanamaki beams and then leans closer to Matsukawa, leans up to him and kisses him on the cheek. Matsukawa shuts up, breath audibly hitching.
Hanamaki moves so that his mouth is at Matsukawa’s ear.
“I was looking for you,” Hanamaki whispers, finding Matsukawa’s hand and he presses his own button against his palm. “So I can give this to you but you got to me first,”
He steps back afterwards, just slightly so he’ll see Matsukawa’s expression, surprised and relieved and even flattered. Honestly he looks so dumbstruck he’s been absolutely blind all this time Hanamaki wants to cry.
“Takahiro,” Matsukawa finally says and Hanamaki, to his own horror, feels a sob coming out of him and he swallows multiple times to keep it down.
“Yeah,” Swallow that sob gulp it down. “For so long,” FUCK. Hanamaki sniffs miserably. “I could smack you so many times with this bouquet.” He does it though, to prove he will.
And then Matsukawa’s sporting that crooked smile of his, very smug and Hanamaki smacks him again and only makes the smile wider.
“You like me,” Matsukawa says, wording the thought out loud and it only makes him look happier.
“Shut the f—”
“YES!” Matsukawa yells, hands in the air in elation.
Hanamaki grabs his sleeve, appalled.
“Issei, SHUT UP!”
“YES!”
Hanamaki grabs Matsukawa’s collar and drags him down to his height, their faces close but not really touching. Matsukawa’s still grinning proudly, even more with Hanamaki’s bashful expression.
“Sh-Shut up, alright?” Hanamaki mutters.
“Okay,” Matsukawa says, taking Hanamaki’s hand.
“So, after you spat out your romance, Prince Charming we should go back.”
Matsukawa laughs.
“Yes we should.”
Together, they walk back to the stadium hand in hand, Hanamaki expertly hiding the carnations behind him, heart connected to the person beside him.