A/N - It's everyone's favourite piece of gorgeous trash, Oikawa Tooru! Give him a hand, people!

I find Iwa a bit more interesting though, so this is from his perspective. I should be ashamed of myself for doing this when the New Riders is screaming for my attention, but I hit a massive writers block. I'm working on it, though.

And oh, look, Hinata turned up! Yay!

Enjoy!

16/4/18

It's Almost Like We Never Left

Summary: Iwaizumi and Oikawa come to Sendai to watch Seijoh's matches. Bromance, Oikawa acting immature, Hinata talking in CAPITAL LETTERS, and a chance encounter with a certain manager.

Hajime yawned widely, wishing for the tenth time that he hadn't had to wake up so early in the morning to catch the train to Sendai from Kyoto. Sure, coming by to cheer on their kohai was nice (and he was really lucky his parents didn't mind shelling out 46,000 yen for the train fare every three months so that their son could visit), and it was awesome seeing what a good captain Kunimi made, but still, more than five hours to Sendai and more than five hours back . . . at least he had a long weekend coming up, so he would have time to catch up on his assignments. After he caught up on his six hours of missed sleep.

His companion, of course, didn't seem to be troubled by these kinds of thoughts at all.

" . . . and did you see that spike? When they broke the deuce? Kindaichi was freaking awesome, like he almost beat you, Iwa-chan. Ahh, it made me feel so good, watching them thrash Shiratorizawa. Even that annoying guy, Tsutomu whatever - he was a first year when we were third years, remember? Kindaichi was definitely the better ace, like seriously, he's grown so much. And Kunimi was doing a great job as captain, he was calm and collected - oh, and there's that second year, Kaidou-kun, almost as good at setting as I am. And that first year libero, like wow, he can already do such a good back row attack, that's some insane talent right there-"

"Shittykawa, you already told the team all this and more, so can you stop talking for like five minutes? You're giving me a headache."

"Mean, Iwa-chan. Aren't you excited to see how well Seijoh is doing?"

"Yeah, they're doing pretty awesome, but I can still see where they need work. They didn't thrash Shiratorizawa, two of the sets went to deuce. They're gonna be tired as hell tomorrow when they face Karasuno."

Oikawa's mouth twisted slightly, but Hajime couldn't find it in himself to be sorry. It had been two years already, more than enough time for him to get over it. And seeing as his Tokyo college team was so insanely good that he was having to actually work to keep up, instead of work to bring them to his level, he figured he didn't have to cut him that slack this time.

"The freak duo are gonna be new and improved, even better than last year. They have the guy with the glasses, Tsukki-whatever, one of the best blockers in the prefecture. And that really good second-year libero, and -"

"Yeah, yeah, I get the point," Oikawa grumbled, morosely shoving his hands in his Aoba Johsai jacket.

"Point is they'd better be on top of their game tomorrow, or it's going to be Karasuno going to nationals, not us - I mean, not Seijoh."

"You," Oikawa said, poking his shoulder, "are just trying to get me down because you're sleepy and you want your nap and you had to deal with your mom's flying tackle hug this morning. And I'm not gonna let you. Our team is great, our team is strong, and they are going to get through the qualifiers and go to Nationals because if they don't they know I will kill them in their sleep."

"Some senpai," Hajime said, stifling another yawn.

"Hey, who bought the entire team yakisoba with his own precious pocket money?"

"That was literally once. And who sent poor Kindaichi out to the bakery every other day for the whole year?" Hajime countered.

A roar from one of the courts drowned out half of Oikawa's indignant reply, and Hajime let himself zone out for the rest.

Sounded like a cheer for a nice receive, he thought. It's too bad we need to use this corridor to leave - it would be great if we could have seen that. Wait, can we use this corridor? Isn't this like part of the team's changing quarters or something? He cast a cursory glance around the bright corridor and the row of doors they were passing. Well, no one seems to be around right now, so I guess we're okay . . . It's the last two matches going on, after all. Everyone else has left, no point in wasting time that you can use to recharge for tomorrow . . . He smiled slightly, remembering how often the Aoba Johsai coach had said those words.

"Iwa-chan, you're not listening to me at all, are you?" Oikawa said with an offended pout.

Hajima gave him an unimpressed look. "It's not like you're saying anything interesting."

"You know what your problem is? College is getting to you, that's what. Why you even picked an intensive course like electrical engineering-"

A small crash interrupted him. Hajime looked around with a slight frown, and Oikawa cut himself off, his eyes darting around the corridor curiously. Then there was a heavy thump, and a distinctly feminine yelp.

Hajime took a few steps forward to the right door - the only door that was ajar - and pushed it open, wrinkling his nose at the thick atmosphere of a changing room. There was a girl sitting on the floor, wincing as she prodded her foot. Her back was to him, and she had a head of blonde hair that fell halfway down her back. A black jacket lay beside her on the floor, and one of the tall cupboards stood open wide open, displaying its bare shelves.

"Uh, you okay?"

She turned around instantly, startled eyes flying to his face. Then she relaxed and laughed sheepishly. "Me? I'm totally fine, just lost my balance." She nodded to the rickety table as she started to get to her feet, and Hajime noticed a small cardboard box lying on its side, plastic bento boxes of all colours and sizes spilling out of it. "Sorry, did I scare you?"

Oikawa, who had been peeping over his shoulder, piped up, "Scare us? Of course not. The only thing that would possibly scare us is seeing such a beautiful young lady on the floor, possibly injured." He swept in breezily and offered her a courteous hand.

From whiny kid to smooth talking bastard in two seconds, Hajime thought with exasperated amusement.

The girl gave Hajime a nervous look - he couldn't blame her, Oikawa's style of speech was definitely weird to people who weren't drooling over him - then accepted the hand up hesitantly. Oikawa gracefully pulled her to her feet, then knelt to gather up the fallen boxes.

"Ah, you don't need to do that!" she exclaimed, kneeling as well."I've got it-"

"It's my pleasure, manager-chan!"

She paused, looking surprised. "Is it that obvious I'm a . . .?"

Her voice trailed away as she met Oikawa's gaze. Hajime tilted his head, wondering at the flash of recognition in her eyes, and wondering why she looked so damn familiar.

"Oi-Oikawa-san?"

Oikawa looked pleasantly surprised, and laughed. "You recognise me, huh? It's good to know I'm still popular!"

"O-of course I recognise you!" she stammered. "I remember watching you serve and thinking wow, that would definitely tear my arms off if I tried to receive it!"

Oikawa threw a glance at Hajime that was sparkling with mischief, and he groaned silently. He'd be listening to "Ah, the girls still love me, Iwa-chan! You know they would notice you too, if you just stopped scowling all the time-" for the next half an hour.

But the girl turned to him and exclaimed, "So you must be Iwaizumi-san!"

He blinked at her as she got to her feet and bowed. "I'm sorry I didn't recognise you before, but it's been a while since I've seen either of you!"

He shrugged, smiling a little despite himself. It actually was nice to be recognised, and the obvious sincerity and enthusiasm shining in her (quite pretty) brown eyes definitely didn't hurt.

"That's fine, uh-?"

"Oh, Yachi! Yachi Hitoka!"

"It's fine, Yachi-san. It's been a couple of years since we left, after all. Is your leg hurt?"

"No, not at all. I just landed on it a bit weirdly, but it's fine."

Oikawa, slightly ruffled at being left out, tapped her on the shoulder and gave her the box with a wide smile. "Here, Yacchan."

"Oh, I should have helped you!" she exclaimed, distressed, blushing slightly. "Thank you so much, Oikawa-san! You didn't have to, really."

He leaned against the wall, eyes twinkling. "Like I said, it's my pleasure to help such a sweet, beautiful young lady."

Her blush became deeper, and her eyes flashed to Hajime, so obviously unsure and off-balance that Hajime said, "Don't talk like you're her grandfather, Oikawa, it's weird."

"Iwa-chan! Don't say things like that!"

Yachi giggled softly, and Hajime couldn't help smiling a little.

Oikawa swept his hair back with a flourish - a gesture that, supposedly, had actually made a girl swoon when Oikawa was in second year - and said teasingly, "So which team do you manage, Yacchan? Surely a bunch of brutes, leaving their pretty manager to do dangerous work like this without even offering to help. You must have a hard time with them."

She waved her free hand quickly. "No, no, they're amazing! I mean, they're really sweet and we have a lot of fun together, and they're a really good team, too. And, uh, getting something down from the cupboard isn't really dangerous, it's just that I'm pretty clumsy, so-"

"Are you?" Oikawa raised his eyebrows in disbelief. "Surely you don't believe that? I certainly can't. I would definitely describe you as amazingly graceful."

Hajime had to hold back a snort. No offence to Yachi-san, but it wasn't like Oikawa had seen her walk a ramp; he'd hardly even seen her walk at all. Calling her graceful was such a blatant attempt at flattery that he wasn't surprised she began to lose herself in a mass of fumbling half-sentences.

"Which team do you manage, Yachi-san?" he cut in, biting his lip to stop from smiling as she tried to disclaim and thank Oikawa at the same time.

She looks so familiar, where have I-

"Oh! Oh, I guess you wouldn't remember, huh?" She smiled shyly. "I was a first year, and I only got to watch one match we had against Aoba Johsai. Um, but my team is-"

She was interrupted by a rather faint voice calling, "Toka-chan!" from the corridor.

Yachi started. "He came to look for me? I must have taken a really long time," she exclaimed, almost to herself, then called, "I'm here, I'm coming!"

"Who's 'he'?" Oikawa asked.

She smiled, a full, proud, genuine smile. "Team captain," she replied simply.

"You didn't say which team-?"

"Toka-chan?" Someone poked their head in the room. Hajime sized him up automatically. Pretty tall, rather long hair that was tied high at the back and fell messily over his forehead in the front, a generous dash of freckles across his face, a kind air, and a volleyball uniform that had the number one.

A black and orange volleyball uniform.

Hajime snapped his fingers softly as the realization struck him. Ohh, right, right, she was the new manager back when we were in third year, wasn't she?

"Ah, so that's why you look so familiar," Hajime said, looking back at Yachi. "You're Karasuno's manager, huh? I never noticed, but you must have been sitting on the side of all the Karasuno matches till now."

She grinned. "That's me! Hey, Tadashi-kun, sorry I took so long."

"That's okay," he said, coming further into the room, glancing curiously at Hajime and Oikawa. "Um, you're-?"

"Hey, you're the pinch server, right?" Oikawa said, his eyes careful and calculating. "Karasuno's first year pinch server?"

"Yamaguchi Tadashi, no longer first year," he said with a pleasant smile and a short bow. "And no longer just the pinch server. And you're - Oikawa-san and Iwaizumi-san, right?"

Hajime nodded. "That's us. So you're captain now, right? Your manager was telling us. Congrats."

He grinned, running a hand through his hair."Thanks. It feels like a lot more trouble than it's worth a lot of the time, but I've got a great vice-captain and a great manager, and they really help pull the team together."

"Who's vice?" Oikawa asked.

"Kageyama," Yachi chirped.

Hajime's eyebrows rose. "Seriously? Well, good for him."

Yamaguchi nodded. "He's super dependable."

"Really?" There was an unsettling glint in Oikawa's eyes. "Hey, Iwa-chan, you wanna go congratulate our dear kohai before we go?"

"No," Hajime said firmly. "I want to get a bite to eat and catch the earliest train back so I'm not up late catching up on my assignments. And stop with that crafty face, it's creepy."

"Iwa-chan!"

Yamaguchi valiantly managed not to smile at that, and instead asked curiously, "Actually, how come you both are in Sendai?"

"We came up to watch Seijoh's matches. Did it last year too," Hajime replied.

"Ah, we must have missed you last time, then. We didn't play Seijoh at all."

Yachi tilted her head, like a sparrow, her brow furrowing. "Why, what happened last - wait, was it last year that Dateko-?"

Yamaguchi smiled at her affectionately. "Such a terrible manager. Yeah, Dateko went to the Inter-High nationals last year."

Yachi rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. Hajime glanced at Oikawa, noting with exasperation the way his eyebrow was twitching irritably.

"Well, they won't this year," Oikawa said smoothly. "This year, Seijoh is the team that's going to win."

Hajime suppressed the urge to groan. Did he really have to try to rile up the captain of a team they'd played two years ago?

But though Yamaguchi blinked for a moment, he only smiled. "I'm sure they'll do their best," he said politely, holding Oikawa's gaze, and -

- and for a moment, It was Daichi Sawamura standing there - strong and bright eyed and full of confidence. Then Hajime blinked, and the moment passed.

He opened his mouth to intervene, but Oikawa beat him to it.

"That's a lot of confidence you've got there,captain-kun," he said softly, his smile growing disquieting. "Let me give you a piece of advice - it's never a good idea to underestimate Seijoh."

Yamaguchi shrugged slightly, his smile cheerful and sincere. "Of course. But it's not a good idea to underestimate Karasuno, either, Oikawa-san." He bowed to them both. "I apologise, but we're running late. I hope we give you a good match to watch tomorrow. Please excuse us."

"I won't be there, but Oikawa will," Hajime replied quickly, nodding in return, stopping Oikawa from making a cutting reply. "Good luck."

"Thank you, Iwaizumi-san."

Yachi snatched her jacket off the floor, and bowed. "Thank you for your concern and for helping me, Oikawa-san, iwaizumi-san! It was great to see you again."

"It was wonderful to meet you as well, Yacchan," Oikawa said, with a charming wink, recovering his poise quickly as he turned to face her. "Be sure to console your captain when Karasuno loses tomorrow, 'kay?"

"Uhh - I -"

Hajime grimaced, but Yamaguchi only bowed courteously and pulled Yachi out of the room.

Hajime turned to Oikawa with a frown. "Dude, did you seriously just let yourself get riled up by someone two years younger than you? When you're not even playing against him or his team?"

Oikawa pushed past him to the door. "That kid was too cocky by half," he growled. "And you don't have any school spirit, Iwa-chan. They're playing against Seijoh, which means they're against us. I can't believe you actually said good luck!"

Hajime rolled his eyes as he followed. "You hold grudges for too long, idiot."

Oikawa opened his mouth to answer, but was interrupted by the echoes of a conversation steadily growing fainter.

" . . . wasn't scary?" He looked down the corridor to see Yachi hugging the box to her chest, looking up at Yamaguchi, who was walking by her side.

Yamaguchi rubbed the back of his neck, smiling a little sheepishly as he looked down at her. "Ehh, a little, yeah - but, you know, I wouldn't have said that if I didn't have that much confidence in the team."

Hajime leaned against the wall, waiting for them to walk a bit further. He and Oikawa had to take the same path, and it would be rude and weird to listen in. But Oikawa poked his shoulder, and when he looked around, gave him a mischievous look, beckoning with one finger. Hajime gave him a glare.

"We are not eavesdropping on them."

"Don't you want to hear what Yacchan says about us?"

"No!"

"Come on, that snarky kid deserves it."

"He wasn't snarky, he was polite, you were the snarky one. Don't be an idiot."

Oikawa glanced at Yachi and Yamaguchi, who were just taking the turn that led to the stairs. He looked back at Hajime speculatively, then shrugged and took off on his own.

"Wait - shit! Oikawa, get back here!" Hajime groaned and followed him.

"How old are you?" he whispered harshly when he caught up at the top of the stairs. "Twenty or twelve?"

"Shh! Just listen!" Oikawa's eyes were dancing as he peeped out from behind the wall. "They've just got to the part about us!"

"- fell off the table, and I guess it must have made a loud sound, because they both turned up to help. They were really nice about it. I mean -"

Yachi broke off. Hajime couldn't help looking as well, and saw that she had paused on the stairs. Yamaguchi gave her a sidelong glance and a nudge.

Yachi traced an aimless pattern on the stair with one shoe, looking down at the box she was holding."I mean - Oikawa-san was kind of - if I wasn't wrong - um - flirting with me?"

Oikawa grinned at Hajime widely, and Hajime brought his fist down on his head hard. Oikawa managed to muffle his yelp creditably, and shoved his elbow in his stomach in retaliation. It might have developed into a full-fledged scuffle if they hadn't been interrupted by laughter.

Oikawa frowned, peeking around the wall again, and Hajime followed suit, curiosity getting the best of him. It was Yamaguchi laughing, and Yachi was looking at him with a mixture of amusement and embarrassment.

"No, did he really?" Yamaguchi said, grinning down at Yachi. "That's awesome, Toka-chan."

"No, it was so weird! I mean, people don't flirt with me! At all! And it was Oikawa-san - Tadashi, stop laughing!"

"So cute," Yamaguchi said teasingly, still chuckling.

Oikawa looked at Hajime with an eyebrow raised, and Hajime shrugged, scowling at him.

On the stairs, Yachi bumped Yamaguchi with her shoulder, looking down at her shoes. Hajime was entirely certain that she was blushing furiously. Yamaguchi watched her for a moment, then bent down and sneaked a kiss onto her cheek.

"Wha - Tadashi!" Yachi looked around frantically for members of other teams, and Hajime hastily ducked behind the wall. He heard her say "There are still people around -"

"But next time, tell him you have a boyfriend, would you?"

Hajime peeped out again to see Yamaguchi holding the box in his hands as he smiled down at her - he must have plucked it from her hands.

Yachi looked flustered."Tadash - what - I would have but - no, that would have been so weird! You can't just bring that up in casual conversation! And I'm the manager, I can carry -" She made an ineffectual swipe at the box, and Yamaguchi twisted out of the way, beginning to trot down the stairs..

"Can't hear you, Toka-chan! If you want it come and get it!" he called back.

Yachi began to hurry down as well, giggling in spite of herself. "How come you're so energetic? Are you that confident about tomorrow?"

Yamaguchi jumped down the last four steps and flashed a 'V' over his shoulder, grinning cheerfully. "Yep! Plus I told Hinata I'd treat him to unlimited pork buns if we won in two straight sets, so it's pretty much guaranteed."

Yachi laughed as she reached him, flicking him lightly on the forehead. "Silly."

His grin only grew wider as he pushed the doors open with one hand, passing out of Hajime's field of view. "That's why you love me! Come on, everyone's in the bus already."

"Tadashi, do you have to say stuff like that so that the whole building can hear - " Yachi's exasperated voice was cut off abruptly as the gym doors swung shut.

And there was silence.

Eventually, Oikawa said, "I want to kick his ass more than ever now. 'Pork buns so it's pretty much guaranteed'? Ugh, so annoy-"

Hajime kicked him in the back, causing him to stumble forward and down the stairs.

"What was that for?" he yelped, turning wounded eyes on Hajime as he rubbed his back.

"That kid is a nice guy, as proved by the fact that he didn't rise to your childish, immature and utterly undignified taunts," Hajime growled. "And the fact that you eavesdropped on him, and pulled me into doing it too, means that you have no right to make snide remarks. Is that understood?"

"He -"

"Is that understood?"

Oikawa scowled, then turned and made his way down the stairs. Hajime followed, keeping a wary eye on him. They had reached the doors when Oikawa muttered, "You're scary when you use big words."

"Yeah, that's why I use them. I have to keep you in line somehow."

Oikawa huffed and looked away as he pushed the doors open. They made their way out into the early evening and down the steps in silence - sullen silence on Oikawa's part. Hajime glanced at him a few moments later and saw him open his mouth to speak.

"If you say anything like 'I can't believe that cute manager is his girlfriend' I'm gonna kick you so hard-"

"How do you do that?! You're a mind reader, aren't you, Iwa-chan? Aren't you?"

Hajime gave him a look as they walked down the row of parked buses.

"It's not hard to read someone with such a simple mind, Shittykawa."

Oikawa stuck his tongue out at him.

One of the buses began to pull out, and they stopped, waiting for it to pass. As the row of windows flashed by, there was suddenly a loud cry of "WAIT, THAT'S THE GREAT KING!" and a face framed by fluffy orange hair popped out of the window.

"HEY, GREAT KING!" Hinata yelled, waving frantically. "HEY, SEIJOH'S SCARY ACE!"

A clamour erupted inside the bus, which slowed down considerably, and Kageyama poked his head out as well.

"Hinata, you dumbass, don't stick your head out of a moving -" he shouted, and then caught sight of Oikawa and iwaizumi. His mouth dropped open.

Hajime hesitated, then raised a hand in greeting. Oikawa, on the other hand, smirked and struck a pose, calling out cheerfully, "I hope you lose tomorrow, Tobio-chan!"

Hajime frowned at him, and Kageyama yelled, "Like we'd ever!"

"Yeah, like we'd ever!" Hinata chimed, trying to pull an intimidating face.

As the bus began to roll through the gate, there came the loudest roar of all.

"BOTH OF YOU GET BACK INSIDE, SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!"

Both heads disappeared instantly. The bus turned onto the road and Hajime could see a man with spiky blond hair - their coach? Yeah, that was him - yelling down at Hinata and Kageyama, both of whom were cowering in their seats.

And the bus picked up speed and vanished down the hill.

Hajime bit his lip hard, but when he caught sight of Oikawa's half-bemused, half-amused expression, he couldn't help bursting into a series of chuckles.

Oikawa laughed as well as they began walking again. "Those two should be a comedy duo."

"Seriously," Hajime agreed.

They walked in companionable silence for a while. Oikawa pulled out his phone, and Hajime dug his hands in his pockets and tilted his head back, watching the clouds begin to glow orange and pink as they drifted across the sky.

"Sendai isn't home," he said musingly, almost to himself. "But it comes pretty close, doesn't it?"

Oikawa hummed at his side. "Because of the gym," he said. "Memories."

"Mmm."

"Plus both our parents came up to meet us in the morning . . . home is definitely when our dads argue about whose onions are growing better-"

"-and our moms go on about the book club association-"

"-and which one of us is taller and you cry tears of horror because it's always me-"

Hajime shot him a look, but couldn't help smiling. "-and they bug us about getting girlfriends-"

Oikawa grinned. "-but tell us to focus on studying the next minute-"

Hajime mimicked his mother's high pitched voice. " 'And don't let volleyball get in the way, dear!' "

Oikawa burst out laughing. "Your voice is too deep for that, Iwa-chan!"

Hajime chuckled. "And they had to do all that in the middle of breakfast. . ."

"I'm surprised we weren't kicked out of the restaurant."

Hajime hummed in agreement, and the silence fell again, gentle and unobtrusive. It was nearly ten minutes later that Oikawa showed Hajime the screen of his phone.

"There's good ramen place about a kilometre off, and apparently they serve really good agedashi tofu. We've got time before the train."

"Sure."

"And I'm paying."

"What? No, it's fine -"

"It's my treat, honestly. You have to pay more than me for the train and everything, let me get this for you."

"Oikawa, you don't have to-"

"Iwa-chan."

Hajime knew that tone. The you're-being-ridiculous-and-I'm-being-eminently-reasonable-and-a-good-friend-to-boot-just-take-it-will-you tone. The first time he'd heard it, Oikawa had been insisting on carrying him home piggyback when he'd fallen from the jungle gym in the park and hurt his knee. They'd been ten. Hajime had been sobbing, and had really scared Oikawa, he'd been told later with a scowl. But that tone had been as unshakeable then as it was now.

He didn't like it, because he knew Oikawa got less pocket money than he did, but no way was he going to bring that up . . .

He huffed a sigh. I'll make it up to him later.

"Fine. I'm warning you, I'm gonna be ordering a lot of tofu."

"Fine by me!"

Oikawa slipped the phone into his pocket, bumping Hajime's shoulder lightly with his own, the way they used to before every exam, before every match - hell, even before they used to ask their crushes out in high school.

And Hajime smiled.

It wasn't home . . .

. . . but it was good enough.

(Kaidou is a reference to Kaidou Shun from Saiki Kusuo no Psi-nan. Also credit to Iwa's Wiki for his favourite food.)