It had been early in the morning when Tooru had finally come home. Hajime had been half awake, hearing the front door creak open and snap shut. The black haired man waited for his husband to climb into their bed.. He heard Tooru come into the bedroom, their only room besides the kitchen, but the mattress beside him remained empty. Instead, Tooru sat down in front of the window, staring out at the moon.

"What… what is it?" Hajime asked sleepily. "Can't sleep?"

"O-Iwa-chan - did I wake you?" Tooru asked but with little compassion in his voice.

"No, I've been half awake and half asleep for a while now." Hajime yawned. "Come into the bed and rest. You'll need your strength tomorrow again."

"I'm fine." Tooru did not move. He remained where he sat and stared out of the window. Hajime wondered what he could possibly be seeing there, but did not ask. His very own Shitty-kawa was sometimes strange and that could not be changed, so he let him be, turned around and went back to sleep.

When it was time to get up again, Oikawa was still sitting by the window, but his eyes were closed. Hajime smiled as he draped a blanket around him and went to make breakfast. This day he had a lot of work to get done, his employer had brought over a batch of expensive clothing which needed mending that would take longer than a day to fix, so he had been given a week. At the same time he had to fix some other things as well, as he discovered upon opening the front door of the small apartment. There was a package with a note saying that all those things had to be done by five.

Hajime sighed when he picked the package up and brought it into the house. He opened it while making breakfast and sorted the things into three piles. Those clothes that could easily be fixed, those things that needed a bit longer to be fixed and those things that were easy but had to be fixed very carefully because of the fabric. When he had finished preparing breakfast, he went back into the bedroom to wake Tooru.

They sat down at the breakfast table and ate in silence for a while before Tooru started to talk about how he had met Hajime's father the night before and that the old man had told him that he was going on some sort of travel because of his health. Apparently the doctor had recommended a healing pilgrimage. Hajime nodded, thinking it was rather a curious type of cure but maybe it was cheaper than conventional medicine.

Half an hour later Tooru left the apartment to obtain a permission slip, leaving Hajime alone to do his work.

Tobio had lived the entirety of his short life in Aoba as the youngest member and only heir of a rather wealthy family known as the Itou-clan, due to their main possession of land being found in the region of Itou, though their family name was in fact Azumane. Tobio, lovingly called 'Oume', because he was as pretty as a plum blossom, despite being a man, had been raised with all possible care by his mother, Lady Kiyoko and his lord grandfather Azumane Asahi, Lord Itou, which meant of course that he was spoiled rotten and was exceedingly inexperienced with the real world. He had been given a young companion of his own after reaching the tender age of fifteen years, so that he could leave the family home without his lady mother or lord grandfather, as they had the old fashioned believe that even the only son of a household of their standing was not to be seen wandering outside alone. Of course this was also a precaution, Tobio was of a slender figure, had fair skin, beautiful facial features, black hair like the feathers of a crow and the appearance of a king, so of course he would be targeted by thugs and thieves if left alone.

Hinata Shouyou was a proper young man with a lot of energy. He had been brought up in a middleclass family and had received a good education. However, his character was a bit fickle and he was easily excitable. Therefore it was not unusual that he was distracted while walking with Tobio through town. It was only thanks to Tobio's habit of not complaining to his lady mother or lord grandfather about mundane things, like his companion's inability to stay by his side or other people avoiding him because of his haughty attitude, that Hinata still had his job. Or maybe it was because Tobio's lady mother had a soft spot for him, as Hinata's family had worked for the Shimizu family for three generations, which had been why she had asked the head Lord Itou, her father-in-law, if it was permissible to hire Hinata as Tobio's companion.

That morning, the two young men had left the main residence of the Azumane household shortly before eleven as they had decided to take a walk in the park before they would go to the theatre to attend the matinee concerto given by the one and only Ushijima Wakatoshi. He was the best tenor of his generation but not easily persuaded to give concertos. It was even more rare to see him on the same stage as the virtuous but eccentric pianist Tendou Satori. The two of them would be accompanied by the White Bird Orchestra in the hands of Shirabu Kenjirou. Tobio, who himself was a passionate singer had asked his lord grandfather to purchase tickets for that special event when news had broken that they had indeed managed to convince those three luminary people to work together.

Tobio and Hinata had left the house on foot, as neither the park nor the theatre was very far away from where they lived.

Tobio had been composed, as always. The black haired man had walked dignifiedly down the road, through the gates of the park and just dropped hints in his conversations with anyone he knew that passed by, how he was very much looking forward to being able to see such a great performance.

Meanwhile Hinata was quite literally jumping up and down from excitement. Despite his upbringing in a strict household and his employment in an even stricter one, he had never been able to learn how to hide his emotions properly. So he ran here and there and hardly stayed with Tobio, whose side he was not supposed to leave, to speak to strangers or look at something while trying to not think about the concerto, because it would make him even giddier.

As the orange haired man was talking to a young girl and telling her how beautiful the crown of daisies she was wearing was, he suddenly heard a shout from Tobio. Hinata turned around to see a very badly dressed man with buzz cut shove Tobio and another man, equally badly dressed but with a bleached Mohawk, tearing away Tobio's expensive umbrella walking stick, which had been a gift from his grandfather. As Tobio tended to forget his umbrellas at home and therefore frequently got drenched in sudden showers, but never left the house without a walking stick, as it was a very fashionable item to have for young men, Lord Itou had commissioned a very well known artisan to make a convertible walking stick.

It took Hinata a moment to realize what he was supposed to do and jumped up, he had previously been squatting down on the level of the girl he had been talking to, and started to make his way over to his employer. However, before he had even crossed half the distance between him and Tobio, another man had stepped up and punched the guy who had shoved Tobio in the face.

When Hinata finally arrived at the side of his employing companion, the other man, he had chocolaty brown, wavy hair and was modestly clothed, had reclaimed the umbrella walking stick, given it back to Tobio and chased the two men out of the park.

"Oh my! What happened! O-Ume-sama." The orange haired man fussed over Tobio who had fallen on the ground when having been shoved and whose back was now full of dust. "O-Ume-sama, are you quite alright? I am so sorry! I was just over there and everything was so fast!"

"It's okay." Tobio grumbled and gripped his umbrella walking stick tightly. "I'm sure tiny as you are you wouldn't have been much help against those thugs."

Hinata did not have time to take offence, as other people came over to ask if the heir of the Itou fortune was in any way hurt and to reassure him that they too were quite shocked about what just had happened. It took a moment before they all regained their composure again and Tobio was able to see the person who had rescued him standing at a bit of a distance from the crowd.

The stranger was tall, Tobio noticed now, and fairly handsome, if one looked past the shabby clothing.

Well, he was certainly not of Aoba, but rather neatly dressed for someone who only came to this part for a days work. When the stranger noticed Tobio looking at him, he gave him a dashing smile, waved and turned to go, apparently satisfied to see that the person he had helped looked fine.

It was not a habit of Tobio's to run after strangers, but for some reason he pushed the people around him aside and started hurrying towards the broad back of the man who made his way towards the park's gates.

"Please wait", Tobio called after the man, who immediately stopped in his tracks. The young man did not exactly know what he was supposed to say now, as he was not exactly familiar with the custom of expressing gratitude, but he stepped forward nonetheless. The handsome stranger had turned around and looked at him, waiting for him to speak, so Tobio inhaled deeply and stuttered: "Th- Tha- Thank… yo…" Blushing from embarrassment.

"It was no trouble at all." The stranger smiled. "I only did what a hundred other men would have done as well."

"Oh, but it was you who did it." Hinata piped up, giving Tobio a slight scare. "What is your name?"

"Oikawa Tooru", answered Tobio's saviour, still sporting a dashing smile. "But I am also called Tamiya, after my birthplace. May I know your names as well?"

"Oh, I am Hinata Shouyou." The orange haired man grinned and pointed to his companion. "And this is Tobio, the lovely O-Ume, grandson of the great Azumane Asahi, Lord Itou."

Tobio poked Hinata with his elbow. "Don't brag", he murmured, slightly embarrassed to having been presented like this to a supposedly unsuspecting stranger. "We… We ought to show our gratitude." His voice wasn't very loud and so he wasn't sure if this Tamiya had heard him at first, but as the man started to shake his head in disapproval, his heart sunk.

"No, no. That won't do. I only did what others would do, I do not need anything from you."

"But you must." Tobio insisted, a little bit louder now.

"But if he doesn't want anything?" Hinata seemed slightly confused.

"How long have you been my companion and how long have you hid your perfectly savage sense of propriety?" Tobio smacked him over the back of his orange mopped head, immediately regretting the outburst of emotions, like he would call it, and apologizing to Oikawa for the rudeness. "We'll give you something. It is not much, but please take it." He handed him a small amount of cash.

The brown haired man made a show of refusing the money but ended up accepting it anyway before their ways parted as Hinata pointed out to Tobio that they had to leave if they were not to miss Ushikawa Wakatoshi's performance. They said their good-byes exchanging formally their address cards and then the two young men hurried away towards the theatre.

They did not see the glee and satisfaction sparkling in Oikawa's eyes as he counted the money, which was for their standard very little but for Oikawa a lot. Even just a third of it was a lot and he congratulated himself for the great scheme.

Tobio had not and would probably not in the foreseeable future, be able to forget the good-looking man with the wavy brown hair and matching eyes. Oikawa Tooru, he thought, Tamiya, what a nice sounding name. A somehow familiar sounding name too.

"So you liked him?" Hinata asked straight out as they left the theatre.

"Who?" Tobio looked confused and blushed.

"Ushiwaka. We just heard him." Bewilderment was to be read in Hinata's eyes.

"Oh… Yes… He was good." Tobio nodded, too embarrassed to admit that he had not been paying a lot of attention to the concerto. How had he been able to forget about all this just because of that stranger? He sighed.

"Is something the matter?" Hinata seemed concerned.

"Oh… No. Not really."

It took some convincing on the part of the fiery-headed man to get the slightly cold Tobio to talk. But when he finally did talk, he was like a waterfall; never ending in his praise and admiration for the man they had met that morning. Oikawa may have given back the walking stick, but had run off with his heart – was something Tobio might have said if he had been a bit more poetically inclined.

The young, black haired man sighed as he thought of the man who had so courageously saved him. "Do you think", Tobio asked when they had almost arrived home, "he will remember me?"

"Why would he not?" Hinata grinned from ear to ear. "You are good looking, wealthy and well mannered. He would be stupid to forget about you."

Tobio shrugged. "Judging from his clothes he was not from here…"

"Oh, let's look at his card. We will find out where he is from." Hinata jumped up and down, excited at the prospect of finding out more about the handsome stranger.

"Not here. Let's go to my room to check. I don't want my lady mother finding out. He might not be an entirely proper person and you know how she can be…"

It was about twenty minutes later when Hinata emerged from the room, leaving a sobbing Tobio, who had kicked him out to be alone. The whole situation with the stranger looked somehow bleak. It was not very likely that his heart's wish would come true, now that they had looked at the information about the dashing man.

Oikawa Tooru was from Karasuno, and unfortunately not even the better part of that. It would probably take him a lifetime to earn enough money to be granted the right to live in another, better suburb – and Aoba was probably beyond his reach. Tobio, the heir to the title of Lord Itou was therefore quite convinced that he would never be with the man he had just fallen in love with and it broke his heart.

Hinata, ever the optimist, set it into his head to go and tell the lady of the house, Tobio's lady mother, about how her son had lost his heart to a stranger. Who knew, maybe something could be done about the situation. Somehow, he had a feeling, that he had heard the name, Oikawa of Tamiya, before…

The orange haired man walked down the corridors of the mansion, bracing himself for the conversation he was about to have. He was not very diplomatic, but he hoped to be able to appeal to Lady Kiyoko's love for her son and then maybe a miracle could happen.

He had another servant knock at the door to the drawing room which the black haired woman used to spend her afternoons in, and had the lower servant announce his wish to have a private conversation with her.

So he was announced and granted entrance.

"O-Maki, my dear, how can I help?" Lady Kiyoko asked, looking up to him from her book, which she had been reading sitting in an armchair.

"Lady Kiyoko" Hinata greeted her by bowing a little. "It is always a pleasure to be granted to see you."

Lady Kiyoko smiled and bade him to sit down in an armchair opposite of her. The young, orange haired man did as he was told, feeling a tinge less nervous. However, as soon as his employer asked what it was that he wanted, why he had come to talk to her, he was again very agitated. It took him every last bit of restraint to not jump up and pace the room as he began to outline what had happened that morning and recount how Tobio had helplessly fallen in love.

"But who is that young, courageous man?"

"His name is Oikawa Tooru" Hinata said and swallowed hard. "He told us, that he was also known by the name of Tamiya – apparently after his birth place."

"Oikawa Tooru of Tamiya?" Lady Kiyoko asked, sounding slightly curious. Hinata nodded. Her face went pensive and silence settled between them.

Hinata became more nervous as the silence dragged on, as he had not told her about yet what was problematic about the man. He had hinted on it but not explicitly stated it.

"I think" Lady Kiyoko finally broke the silence "I have heard the name before. There was a family in Shiratorida with a son by that name, if I remember correctly." Hinata's face lit up, maybe not all was lost. He was about to speak when Lady Kiyoko said: "But he married a man by the name of Hajime or Ichi or something. But what does it matter what his name was? He was someone well beneath Oikawa of Tamiya's social standing and they ended up having to move to some suburb or other."

His heart sunk. "He is married?" Even if Oikawa Tooru living in Karasuno had not been a problem, then him being married definitely was. Sadness grew inside Hinata's heart, he did not want to think about breaking this kind of news to Tobio; the news might well be the final blow to him.

Meanwhile, Lady Kiyoko remained calm. "Well… If he still is married, then having him divorce his husband would be the solution."

Hinata blinked. "Oh, right." He had not thought that far. But how would someone be made to divorce? "But… He might not want to."

"Who ever sees my lovely O-Ume will want to", Lady Kiyoko stated calmly. "We ought to have a talk with Lord Itou and bring the topic to his attention."

They decided to sound Tobio out on the topic and confirm if he really wanted to be with Oikawa Tooru of Tamiya during dinner. Lady Kiyoko pretended that some servant or other had informed her about the gossip on the street about the young master having been mugged in the park that morning. It did not take much convincing on the part of the lady mother to make her son speak, as he was used to telling her and his lord grandfather everything. As the young man recounted the story and told them the name, they broke the news to him that said man was already married and Tobio's expression went blank.

He gulped. "Well, then all is lost", he murmured devastated.

"But why?" His lord grandfather asked. "We shall send for him and have a talk with him. Nothing is lost yet." He tried to cheer his grandson up but the dark haired boy sulked throughout the dinner and retired early that night.

"We ought", said Lady Kiyoko afterwards when she and her father-in-law were sitting in the drawing room having some tea, "to get this Oikawa to divorce that bundle of un-luck he married."

"But how?" The head of the Azumane family seemed quite lost.

"Disfigure the husband", Lady Kiyoko stated calmly.

"Disfigure?" Lord Itou said astonished. He had known his daughter-in-law to be quite ruthless but not this savage.

"Well, I am sure he only married that Ichi or whatever his name is for his looks, if he loses them…"

"But…"

"Do you want your grandson to be happy?"

"Yes."

She looked her father-in-law straight into they eyes and stated matter-of-factly: "Then that is the way."

Author's note:

Dear munchkin kittens & tortoises

Thank you very much for reading and those few of you who commented so far: I really appreciate you!

Credits to my beta LilyPhantomhive01 for helping me with this chapter.

Now two things I want to apologize for:

1. Shimizu Kiyoko being so OOC! (But I needed someone badass and from the very few female characters from Haikyuu she fit the role of Kageyama's mother best.)

2. The next chapter most likely being published late. I know, it might be weird to announce this 2 weeks in advance, but I will have my exams soon, so I really have to concentrate on my studies and will not be able to write any new chapters. Fic's like An Even Match which still have unpublished but finished chapters will be updated, but with this story here we've reached the pre-prepared chapters, gomennasai and so I will have to put it on hiatus.

Jia ne