a/n: i hope you like cheese because that's all this is tbh. six year olds making declarations of staying together forever. this is what my life has come to. nice.

unbeta'd.

TIME CAN TAKE ALL (ALL BUT ME)

[oneshot]

"The world is a really big place, Iwa-chan."

Hajime turns his head to frown at Tooru. They are lying spread eagled in Hajime's little garden (they had sneaked out as soon as his parents had retired to bed because look Iwa-chan the stars are out I want to see the stars we're going to see the stars, come on), slightly winded after a particularly strenuous fight over who was going to use the futon and who the bed which had quickly dissolved into a wrestling match when Hajime had pointed out that Tooru was a guest so he had to use the futon and Tooru rebuked with being a guest is exactly why I should be using the bed, Iwa-chan!

(Hajime had won the fight, obviously.)

(But when Tooru's lower lip had begun to tremble, Hajime decided that they were going to be sharing the bed.)

(Hajime hates sleepovers with Tooru.)

Tooru has a blade of grass stuck to his hair from when they had wrestled earlier, Hajime notices in the starlight, and a smudge of dirt on his cheek, but he doesn't comment on it because Tooru's an idiot who deserves it. Tooru's hand is stuck out in the air and Hajime's frown deepens as he opens and closes it as if trying to catch some of the stars in his hands. Hajime doesn't understand the expression on his face; it's wistful and a little sad. It irks him because he had started to think he had been finally – finally – beginning to understand the greatest puzzle called Oikawa Tooru, but it seemed there were still layers to him that he could not understand yet.

(Hajime thinks that that expression is really stupid.)

"Of course it is, stupid," he says finally as Tooru continues to make grabbing motions with his hand. "Don't you pay attention in class?"

Tooru's strange expression melts into a pout and he finally tears his gaze away from the sky and pulls his lips into a familiar pout.

"Mean! Mean, Iwa- chan!"

"Do you want me to punch you?"

"No!" Tooru whines. "Iwa-chan."

Hajime breathes out a long-suffering sigh.

"What?" he says quietly.

Tooru turns his eyes back towards the sky, the ends of his lips tugging downwards.

(Hajime really hates that expression.)

"The world is a really big place," he repeats slowly, and his voice is filled with something Hajime simply doesn't understand.

"I got that part," Hajime replies impatiently. "What about it?"

Tooru's voice is small when he whispers, "Will we lose each other?"

Hajime looks at Tooru. He's even more confused now. "Um," he says intelligently, "what?"

Tooru doesn't look at him. His nose scrunches up and Hajime thinks oh no just as Tooru's eyes start to water.

"The world," Tooru says, his voice surprisingly steady for someone on the verge of tears, "is so big that it's easy to lose each other. Everything gets lost. Okaa-san told me that today when I couldn't find Uchu-kun. You know how I lost him, right?" Tooru hiccups. "I lost him, Iwa-chan, I l-lost him, because the world is so big and Okaa-san said that it's...it's normal for things to get lost. What if I lose you too? Like Uchu-kun." Then, Tooru wails. "I don't want to lose Iwa-chan, too!"

And Hajime thinks, oh.

Tooru is sniffling now, big fat tears rolling down his face, and suddenly, Hajime feels very annoyed.

"Are you an idiot? Idiotkawa?"

Tooru finally turns his watery gaze towards him, looking surprised.

"E-eh? Iwa-chan, what – ?"

Hajime sits up and frowns unpleasantly at Tooru's tear-stained face. He reaches forward and pulls his hair hard.

"Ow! Ow, ow, ow. Iwa-chaaan!"

Hajime removes his hand from Tooru's hair. Tooru looks at him with wide glassy eyes and shrinks under his glare.

"Do I look like some stupid stuffed alien toy that you can forget on your way home after a picnic?"

"Well, no, but – "

"I'm not leaving," Hajime proclaims. "Never. I'll not let you lose me, idiot. If I'm not by your side, who's going to save you from-from, yourself? You'll probably do something really stupid like trying to climb a tree when you see a bird that you think looks like a stupid alien and fall down and break all your bones and die without me."

Tooru sniffles again and swipes at the snot dribbling from his nose. He moves to sit up so that he's sitting cross-legged right in front of Hajime and their knees are touching each other. He grasps Hajime's hands in both of his (to which Hajime wrinkles his nose because they're slightly slimy with snot; it's disgusting, but for once, Hajime doesn't pull his hands away).

"But what about when we grow up and have to do adult things?" Tooru releases his left hand and lays his palm over Hajime's chest, at a spot just over his heart. "What if we become so busy that we lose each other here?"

Hajime bites back a who said you were in here in the first place anyway? because that would be a lie (only a little one though).

Hajime furrows his brows. "Well, I'm sure adult me won't be so stupid that he'll allow that. If he does, I will punch him." Hajime pretends to overlook the deeply flawed logic in his statement. "Don't be an idiot." He reclaims the hand over his chest and squeezes it gently. "We will never lose each other. I'm your best friend. And I always will be."

Tooru stares down at their clasped hands and even though he's not looking at the stars anymore, Hajime swears he can see entire galaxies in his eyes.

He finally looks up and gives Hajime a warbled smile.

"Promise?" he asks.

"Promise," Hajime nods.

Tooru lets go of his hands and thrusts his pinky finger towards him and Hajime groans.

"No."

"Iwa-chan." Tooru's voice is more cheerful now, Hajime notices distantly, and feels his own spirits lift slightly. "A promise is not a promise until you pinky swear."

"No."

Tooru's lower lip juts out and he looks at Hajime reproachfully. He pokes Hajime's chess with his pinky finger insistently.

"Fine," Hajime relents, reluctantly, "but this is the last time, okay?"

(It had been the last time when they'd done this two days ago, too.)

"Okay!" Tooru echoes and smiles brightly as Hajime wraps his pinky finger around his own. "Begin!"

"Pinky promise – " Hajime grumbles.

" – if I lie – "

" – I will drink one thousand needles – "

" –and cut off my pinky!" Tooru finishes a little too cheerfully for Hajime's taste.

I hate this, Hajime thinks.

"I hate this," he says out loud and snatches back his finger.

"Aw, Iwa-chan, the meanest brute is scared of an itty-bitty rhyme." Tooru reaches forward to squish his cheeks, and now that he has stopped crying, Hajime feels no regret in jabbing at his stomach, reveling the squeak of surprise that Tooru gives out.

"Shut up, Idiotkawa."

"Iwa-chan," Tooru whines.

They stay quiet for a bit, squinting at each other, before Tooru sighs and leans forward to rest his forehead against Hajime's. "You meant that, right?" he says quietly, his eyes searching Hajime's face earnestly. "About staying together?"

Hajime snorts. He hates Tooru's habit of second guessing himself over everything. He had even done the freakish pinky promise thing! He hates doing the freakish pinky promise thing.

(A fact that Tooru very well knows.)

(Hajime hates Oikawa Tooru.)

(That's a lie.)

"Obviously, stupid," he says gruffly and lightly bonks Tooru's head. "Do I ever lie?"

"No," Tooru answers immediately, and then he grins and flings himself towards Hajime, making both of them tumble backwards. His arms are tight around Hajime and he's giggling to himself. After a moment, Hajime returns the hug.

"We should go to sleep," he says after a few minutes and reluctantly pushes Tooru off him. "It's very late. Idiot," he adds in for good measure.

Tooru hums and gets on his feet. "Whatever the mean brute says," he chirps and squeaks as Hajime gives him a half-hearted punch. Hajime grasps Tooru's offered hand and allows himself to be pulled up.

"Let's go back inside," he says.

(Hajime holds his hand tightly all the way to his room.)

(And the entire night as they curl up on his bed.)

(Because Hajime has a promise to keep.)

(And he might as well start making good on it now.)

a/n: this is too much fluff, oh god, my eyes.

my first contribution to this fandom and of course, it's shitty smol iwaois and had me procrastinating from writing he wanders, he's lost.

i really hope to write more of these dorks, ahhh. review, if you please. it does wonders for my soul.